Abstract:
Background: High quality practice guidelines are of utmost importance in clinical
medicine. Aim: To evaluate the methodological quality of Clinical Practice
Guidelines (CPG) for 80 high burden health conditions included in the “Explicit
Guarantees in Healthcare” (EGH) program available on July 2014, elaborated
and published by the Ministry of Health of Chile. Material and Methods: A
cross-sectional observational study using the Appraisal of Guidelines Research
and Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument to evaluate the methodological quality
of the current CPGs for EGH. Two reviewers assessed each CPG independently,
obtaining standardized scores according for each dimension included in the
AGREE II instrument. Results: Eighty one CPGs were evaluated. They were
generally considered of reasonable quality, obtaining high scores in the following
domains: Scope and Purpose (81.3%), Clarity of Presentation (78.6%) and
Editorial Independence (76.5%). The following domains had a score under 60%:
Stakeholder Involvement (51.3%), Rigor of Development (41.4%) and Applicability
(33.6%). Conclusions: The CPGs elaborated for the EGH program have
high scores in domains such as the Scope and Purpose, Clarity of Presentation
and Editorial Independence. Their scores in other dimensions such as Stakeholder
Involvement, Rigor of Development and Applicability can be still improved.
