Level I | Good quality evidence |
Systematic review of RCTs with consistent findings High quality individual RCT |
Level II |
Limited quality patient orientated evidence |
Systematic review of lower quality studies or studies with inconsistent findings Low quality clinical trial Cohort studies Case-control studies |
Level III | Other |
Consensus guidelines, extrapolations from bench research, usual practice, opinion, disease-oriented evidence (intermediate or physiologic outcomes only), or case series |
[33] Hormone therapy: Manson JE, Aragaki AK, Rossouw JE, Anderson GL, Prentice RL, LaCroix AZ, Chlebowski RT, Howard BV, Thomson CA, Margolis KL, Lewis CE, Stefanick ML, Jackson RD, Johnson KC, Martin LW, Shumaker SA, Espeland MA, Wactawski-Wende J; WHI Investigators. Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Long-term All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: The Women's Health Initiative Randomized Trials. JAMA. 2017 Sep 12;318(10):927-938. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28898378