Guías de Práctica Clínica en el Régimen de Garantías en Salud: una evaluación crítica de su calidad / Clinical practice guidelines in the Chilean health sector reform: a critical assessment of their quality

Background: Clinical practice guidelines are widely used as tools for improving quality of health care. However, there is increasing concern about limitations in their development process conducting to inconsistent recommendations. During the last decade the use of guidelines has been promoted in the Chilean health system, but their quality has not yet been evaluated systematically. Aim: To assess the quality of clinical practice guidelines developed by the Chilean guidelines program. Material and Methods: All the guidelines developed by the Chilean program between 2005 and 2009 were retrieved from the Ministry of Health website. Each guideline was assessed independently by three appraisers using the Appraisal of Guidelines, Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument. Standardized scores were obtained for each dimension in each guideline and across the whole set of guidelines. Results: Sixty guidelines were assessed. The 'scope and purpose' dimension scored significantly higher (mean 82.2%, range: 25.9%-100%) and the 'applicability' dimension scored significantly lower (mean 23.3%, range: 0%-72.4%) than any other dimension. 'Publication date' was the only variable consistently associated with dimension scores. Conclusions: The quality of Chilean clinical practice guidelines is far from ideal. Although they seem to have a strong sense of purpose and vision, methodological procedures should be strengthened, especially those related to applicability.

Guías de práctica clínica en atención primaria: Una evaluación crítica / Clinical practice guidelines in primary health care: A critical appraisal

Background: There are doubts about the real usefulness of clinical guidelines to induce changes in practice, specially in primary health care. Those guidelines with inconsistent recommendations can even be misleading. Aim: To assess the quality of Chilean primary health care guidelines and to identify factors associated with high quality guidelines. Material and methods: Chilean primary care guidelines published and disseminated using any strategy 1999 and 2004 were analyzed. Each selected guideline was assessed independently by two evaluators using the Appraisal of Guidelines, Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument following standardized instructions. Descriptive statistics for each dimension of the AGREE instrument were calculated for each guideline. Results: A total of 33 guidelines were retrieved. Fifteen were located using a manual search and 18 from electronic sources. Twenty four did not match our definition of guidelines, therefore only nine were included in the final assessment. There were important differences in the scores obtained by each guideline in different dimensions, with relevant methodological shortcomings. However, no significant differences in scores were found when guidelines were compared by year of elaboration. Conclusions: Our results suggest that previous efforts in primary health care guideline development were misdirected and that important changes are necessary to generate high quality guidelines.