So let's talk about the different levels of evidence that we can use. And by the end of this

lesson, you'll be able to describe the different levels and discuss how you can teach clients

how to tell the difference between evidence-based information and opinion-based information.

And you'll also be able to describe several evidence-based resources for you and your

clients to use. So this is how the levels of evidence are classically arranged from the highest

quality at the top to the lowest quality of evidence at the bottom. So we start with systematic

reviews of randomized controlled trials where you take a bunch

of randomized trials and systematically review them.

The next quality level is a randomized controlled trial and beneath that is a systematic

review of observational research and then we have observational studies which have different

variations of quality within those case reports reports, and then at the very

bottom, expert opinion.

Before we can talk about systematic reviews, let's talk about randomized control trials

that make up the systematic reviews.

Whenever I explain a randomized control trial to somebody who's considering enrolling in one

when I was working as a researcher.

So I would tell them it's kind of like flipping a coin and some of you will receive usual care or a placebo and

some of you will receive a new treatment. And then what we do is compare those two groups before and after the treatment period. One of the big pros of a

randomized control trial is that the random assignment controls for potential differences between the

groups and it helps eliminate bias. So you can't pick and choose who gets to go in which group

and you know you may have a bias where you think this person

would be great for the intervention or the treatment and so you intentionally put them in the

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