Evidence-appraisal glossary
ROBINS-I
A structured tool for judging risk of bias in non-randomized studies of interventions, such as cohort comparisons of one treatment against another. Its name stands for Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions.
Also called: Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions.
ROBINS-I frames each observational study against a hypothetical target trial: the randomized experiment you would run if you could. It covers domains like confounding, selection of participants, classification of interventions, and missing data, giving special weight to confounding because that is where non-randomized comparisons are most vulnerable. Ratings run from low up to critical, and a study judged critical is usually too compromised to inform conclusions.
This is a plain-language methodology definition for reading research. It is general education, not medical advice.