Hot Topics in Pain Management [August 2016]
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Involvement", "Rigor of Development",
"Applicability", and "Editorial
Independence" had serious
shortcomings because the related
information was poor provided. The
remaining domains, including "Scope
and Purpose" and "Clarity of
Presentation" tended to more
precisely reported because most of
the included guidelines described in
detail the specific and focused clinical
questions they aimed to address, the
target population, specific and
unambiguous presentation, different
management options for different
presentations, and easily identifiable
presentation.
Although the AGREE II instrument
provides six independent domains, the
"Rigor of Development" domain is
considered the strongest indicator of
quality of all the domains because it
evaluates the integrity of the guideline
development process. Among the
included CPGs, low scores in the
"Rigor of Development" domain were
partly because of poor performance in
this aspect, including the literature
search and selection methods, lack of
external review prior to publication,
and lack of guideline updating
mechanisms. Among the six domains,
the quality of the "Applicability"
domain also plays a significant role. A
guideline developed systematically
with clear recommendations based on
the best available evidence could
improve the healthcare practice [2].
However, in the present study, most of
included guidelines did not describe
facilitators and barriers to their
application, did not consider the
potential resource implications of
applying the recommendations, and
did not present monitoring or auditing