Article
Comparing European guidelines on hypertensive disorders in pregnancy
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Published: | July 10, 2012 |
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Background: Guideline development is rapidly evolving, with increasing standards for methodological quality and more emphasis on transparency of the process. This means an increased burden on each country’s existing guideline procedures. In preparation of a new Dutch guideline on hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, we decided to explore existing guidelines on this topic.
Objective: To compare European guidelines on hypertensive disorders in pregnancy in order to assess the methodological quality of guideline development in this field.
Methods: We contacted the official Obstetric Societies of all European countries, regarding the availability of a guideline on hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. The methodological quality of the guidelines was assessed by three independent reviewers, using the AGREE-II Instrument.
Results: A total of 16 guidelines were available for analysis. Twenty-five percent of these guidelines were published within the last 3 years, and 31% were over 5 years old. Methodological quality differed widely between the guidelines of the included countries. Domains 5 (applicability) and 6 (editorial independence) were very poorly reported, and none of the sixteen guidelines included patient preferences (domain 2 stakeholder involvement). Furthermore, results on comparing clinical content with methodological quality will be presented.
Discussion:Many of the guidelines that we received were actually better described as protocols. There is room for improvement of implementing evidence based guideline development in obstetrics in Europe.
Implications for guideline developers/users: International collaboration in the field of guideline development could possibly improve guideline quality.