Abstract:
Guideline development processes influence the quality of clinical guidelines. The aim
of this study was to use the AGREE II instrument to evaluate the variability of the
quality of selected guidelines, to determine a baseline for the quality of current
guidelines and determine whether guidelines demonstrated good standard practice
during their development.
The AGREE II instrument was used to assess a selection of guidelines published
between January 2012 and June 2013. Eleven guidelines were selected for review.
Overall, guidelines scored highest in domain 1 (Scope and purpose) and 4 (Clarity of
presentation); and lowest in domain 3 (Rigour of development) and 6 (Editorial
independence) with the overall assessment score of three out of seven. The study
demonstrated that the quality of guidelines was variable and that there are
deficiencies in the guideline development process. The results from this study
provide a baseline to measure the quality of future guidelines.
