Appraise a winter-health trial by applying RoB 2 to each reported result, answering its signalling questions and recording a written justification for every domain judgement. Cochrane's Handbook describes RoB 2 as an assessment of a specific randomized-trial result across bias domains, with each domain judged low risk, some concerns, or high risk.
Work through the trial result by result
- List each outcome result you plan to report (for example, a winter infection rate or a symptom score) and treat each as a separate assessment. RoB 2 is applied to a specific result, so one trial can carry different judgements for different outcomes.
- Answer the signalling questions for each bias domain for that result, then write the justification that supports your answer. The written justification is part of the RoB 2 output, so record it alongside the judgement rather than only the final label.
- Assign low risk, some concerns, or high risk per domain and per outcome, then carry those judgements into your completed RoB 2 table.
Build the table and summary paragraph
Use one row per outcome result and one column per domain, with a final column for the overall judgement. Keep the justification text in a linked appendix or footnote so the table stays readable. In the thesis summary paragraph, state how many results fell into each judgement category, name the domains that most often produced some concerns or high risk, and point the reader to the appendix for the reasoning.
Choosing the right framework
RoB 2 fits randomized trials. If your source list also includes non-randomized winter-health studies, NHLBI's design-specific quality tools direct reviewers to internal validity and study flaws, and they require you to define your own judgement parameters. When you later rate certainty across outcomes, GRADE offers explicit criteria and outcome-level judgements. Name the framework you used for each study type so the thesis reader can follow the logic.