Recommendations of Clinical Practice Guidelines of Stroke Rehabilitation / 中国康复理论与实践

ABSTRACT

@#Objective To analyze the contents of the recommendations of stroke clinical rehabilitation guidelines in order to provide advice for the development and implementation of stroke rehabilitation guidelines.Methods PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, China Biology Medicine disc, Wanfang databases and guideline-related websites were retrieved from the date of establishment to January 2020, to collect stroke clinical rehabilitation guidelines. The main content, recommendations based on evidence, the type of evidences, and the scope of evidence classification had been explored based on World Health Organization Handbook for Guideline Development-2nd Edition.Results A total of twelve guidelines were included in this study, one in Chinese and eleven in English. They were from the United States (3 guidelines), United Kingdom (3 guidelines), Canada (3 guidelines), Australia (2 guidelines) and China (1 guidelines), and published from September, 2005 to February, 2019. Three articles (25.0%) used the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) for quality evaluation, and two articles (16.7%) used Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) as the grading system. The recommendations covered the areas such as cognitive dysfunction (4 dimensions) with a recommendation of cognitive function assessment at most (7 guidelines, 66.7%), language and swallowing dysfunction (5 dimensions) with a recommendation of swallowing-related complications at most (10 guidelines, 83.3%), motor dysfunction (6 dimensions) with a recommendation of spasm treatment at most (10 guidelines, 83.3%), and psychological and behavioral dysfunction (4 dimensions) with a recommendation for assessment or monitoring at most (6 guidelines, 50.0%). There were many recommendations in these areas, but the types of evidence were different, and observational studies and/or randomized controlled trials accounted for most.Conclusion There are different types of evidence and levels of recommendation strength. It is proposed for future guideline developers in stroke rehabilitation to follow World Health Organization Handbook for Guideline Development-2nd Edition to improve the quality and the overall implementation of the rehabilitation guidelines, and to improve the quality and safety of rehabilitation.