Core GRADE 6: presenting the evidence in summary of findings tables

Gordon Guyatt^{1

2

3}, Liang Yao⁴, M Hassan Murad⁵, Monica Hultcrantz^{6

7}, Thomas Agoritsas^{8

3

9}, Hans De Beer¹⁰, Stefan Schandelmaier^{11

12

13}, Alfonso Iorio^{8

2}, Linan Zeng^{14

15

16}, Manya Prasad¹⁷, Per Olav Vandvik^{3

18}, Reem A Mustafa^{8

19}, Arnav Agarwal^{8

2

3}, Tahira Devji², Ivan D Florez^{20

21

22}, Benjamin Djulbegovic²³, Derek K Chu^{8

2}, Bram Rochwerg^{8

2}, Victor M Montori^{24

25}, Romina Brignardello-Petersen⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada guyatt@mcmaster.ca.
² Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada.
³ MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Singapore.
⁵ Evidence-based Practice Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
⁶ HTA Region Stockholm, Centre for Health Economics, Informatics and Health Care Research (CHIS), Stockholm Health Care Services, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁸ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁹ Division General Internal Medicine, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Guide2Guidance, Lemelerberg 7, Utrecht, Netherlands.
¹¹ Division of Clinical Epidemiology, University Hospital and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
¹² School of Public Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
¹³ MTA-PTE Lendület "Momentum" Evidence in Medicine Research Group, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
¹⁴ Pharmacy Department/Evidence-based Pharmacy Centre/Children's Medicine Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
¹⁵ Sichuan University and Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Disease of Women and Children, Ministry of Education, Chengdu, China.
¹⁶ West China Biomedical Big Data Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
¹⁷ Clinical Research and Epidemiology, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India.
¹⁸ Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo Faculty of Medicine, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁹ Department of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, MO, USA.
²⁰ Department of Pediatrics, University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia.
²¹ Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Clínica Las Américas-AUNA, Medellin, Colombia.
²² School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
²³ Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, SC, USA.
²⁴ Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
²⁵ Knowledge and Evaluation Research Unit, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

PMID: 40425239
DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2024-083866

Core GRADE 6: presenting the evidence in summary of findings tables

Gordon Guyatt et al. BMJ. 2025.

. 2025 May 27:389:e083866.

doi: 10.1136/bmj-2024-083866.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada guyatt@mcmaster.ca.
² Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada.
³ MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Singapore.
⁵ Evidence-based Practice Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
⁶ HTA Region Stockholm, Centre for Health Economics, Informatics and Health Care Research (CHIS), Stockholm Health Care Services, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁸ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁹ Division General Internal Medicine, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Guide2Guidance, Lemelerberg 7, Utrecht, Netherlands.
¹¹ Division of Clinical Epidemiology, University Hospital and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
¹² School of Public Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
¹³ MTA-PTE Lendület "Momentum" Evidence in Medicine Research Group, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
¹⁴ Pharmacy Department/Evidence-based Pharmacy Centre/Children's Medicine Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
¹⁵ Sichuan University and Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Disease of Women and Children, Ministry of Education, Chengdu, China.
¹⁶ West China Biomedical Big Data Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
¹⁷ Clinical Research and Epidemiology, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India.
¹⁸ Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo Faculty of Medicine, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁹ Department of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, MO, USA.
²⁰ Department of Pediatrics, University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia.
²¹ Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Clínica Las Américas-AUNA, Medellin, Colombia.
²² School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
²³ Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, SC, USA.
²⁴ Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
²⁵ Knowledge and Evaluation Research Unit, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

PMID: 40425239
DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2024-083866

Abstract

This sixth article in a seven part series presents the Core GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach to summary of findings tables. These tables provide essential information about the effects of interventions on patient important outcomes, including relative and absolute effects, certainty of evidence, and a plain language summary. For binary outcomes calculating absolute effects requires applying relative risk estimates to baseline risks from studies representative of the target population. For groups of patients with very different baseline risks, summary of findings tables include separate rows with different estimates of absolute effects. For continuous outcomes, challenges arise when individual studies use different instruments to measure patient reported outcomes. Facilitating interpretation then requires providing details about units of measurement and minimally important differences.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/ and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

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Core GRADE 6: presenting the evidence in summary of findings tables

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Core GRADE 6: presenting the evidence in summary of findings tables

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