Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Involving Individuals with Developmental Language Disorder and Their Parents/Carers in Research Priority Setting
Published on: June 6, 2020
An experimental study of determinants of the extent of disagreement within clinical guideline development groups
A Hutchings1, R Raine, C Sanderson
1Health Services Research Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK. andrew.hutchings@lshtm.ac.uk
Objective:
To assess the effect of design features and clinical and social cues on the extent of disagreement among participants in a formal consensus development process.
Methods:
Factorial design involving 16 groups consisting of 135 general practitioners (GPs) and 42 mental health professionals from England. The groups rated the appropriateness of four mental health interventions for three conditions (chronic back pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic fatigue syndrome) in the context of various clinical and social cues. The groups differed in three design features: provision of a systematic literature review (versus not provided), group composition (mixed versus GP only), and assumptions about the healthcare resources available (realistic versus idealistic). Disagreement was measured using the mean absolute deviation from a group's median rating for a scenario.
Results:
None of the design features significantly affected the extent of disagreement within groups (all p>0.3). Disagreement did differ between treatments (closer consensus for cognitive behavioural therapy and behavioural therapy than for brief psychodynamic intervention therapy and antidepressants) and cues (closer consensus for depressed patients and patients willing to try any treatment).
Conclusion:
In terms of the extent of disagreement in the groups in this study, formal consensus development was a robust technique in that the results were not dependent on the way it was conducted.
Related Concept Videos
Group Design
Groupthink
Social Proof
Impact of Groups on Groups
Levels of Communication II: Organizational, Public, and Group Dynamics
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast, controlled...