A ‘Summary of findings’ table is an optional, although strongly recommended, means of presenting findings for the most important outcomes, whether or not evidence is available for them. A ‘Summary of findings’ table includes, where appropriate, a summary of the amount of evidence; typical absolute risks for people receiving experimental and control interventions; estimates of relative effect (e.g. risk ratio or odds ratio); a depiction of the quality of the body of evidence; comments; and footnotes. The assessment of the quality of the body of evidence should follow the GRADE framework, which combines considerations of risk of bias, directness, heterogeneity, precision and publication bias.
See also
A full specification and discussion of ‘Summary of findings’ tables is provided in Chapter 11 (Section 11.5);
The GRADE system is overviewed in Chapter 12 (Section 12.2).