Introduction
What is new?
Key pointsSummary of Findings (SoF) tables provide succinct, easily digestible presentations of confidence in effect estimates (quality of evidence) and magnitude of effects.
SoF table should present the seven (or fewer) most important outcomes—these outcomes must always be patient-important outcomes and never be surrogates, although surrogates can be used to estimate effects on patient-important outcomes.
SoF table should present the highest quality evidence. When quality of two bodies of evidence (e.g., randomized trials and observational studies) is similar, SoF table may include summaries from both.
SoF table should include both relative and absolute effect measures, and separate estimates of absolute effect for identifiable patient groups with substantially different baseline or control group risks.
The first 11 articles in this series introduced the GRADE approach to systematic reviews and guideline development [1], discussed the framing of the question [2], and presented GRADE’s concept of confidence in effect estimates [3] and how to apply it [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]. In this 12th article, we describe the final product of a systematic review using the GRADE process, Summary of Findings (SoF) tables that present, for each relevant comparison of alternative management strategies, the quality rating for each outcome, the best estimate of the magnitude of effect in relative terms, and the absolute effect that one might see across subgroups of patients with varying baseline or control group risks. The focus of this article is on binary outcomes. Box 1 presents the seven elements recommended for SoF tables. Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, examples of SoF tables, highlight some of the issues in constructing such a table. Readers will find additional details in the Cochrane Handbook, Chapter 11 [10].