Reporting quality of clinical practice guidelines regarding gout and hyperuricemia according to the RIGHT checklist:
Can Wang1, Xufei Luo2, Maichao Li1
1Gout Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, No.16 Jiangsu Road, Qingdao, China.
Insights
Clinical practice guidelines for gout and hyperuricemia show poor reporting quality. Using the Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) checklist can improve future guideline development.
Area of Science:
- Rheumatology
- Evidence-Based Medicine
- Health Policy
Background:
- Gout and hyperuricemia management relies on clinical practice guidelines (CPGs).
- Assessing the reporting quality of existing CPGs is crucial for identifying areas of improvement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reporting quality of gout and hyperuricemia clinical practice guidelines published between 2009 and 2019.
- To identify opportunities for enhancing the quality of future CPGs in this domain.
Main Methods:
- A systematic search was conducted across multiple databases (PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang) and organizational websites.
- Seventeen CPGs on gout and hyperuricemia were included in the analysis.
- The Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) checklist was used to assess reporting quality.
Main Results:
- The mean reporting rate across 35 RIGHT checklist items was low at 42.5%.
- Only 29.4% of the guidelines exceeded a 50% reporting rate.
- Significant variation in reporting was observed across the seven domains of the RIGHT checklist.
Conclusions:
- The reporting quality of current gout and hyperuricemia CPGs is suboptimal.
- Adoption of the RIGHT checklist by guideline developers is recommended to improve reporting standards.
- Enhanced reporting quality will lead to more reliable and useful clinical practice guidelines.
Background:
The Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) checklist was used to assess the reporting quality of 2009-2019 clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) regarding gout and hyperuricemia, aimed to improve the reporting quality of future guidelines.
Methods:
We searched PubMed, the Chinese Biomedical Literature database, the Wanfang Database, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure from January 2009 to June 2019 for guidelines regarding gout and hyperuricemia. We also searched the websites of guideline development organizations (the Guidelines International Network, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the American College of Rheumatology, and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR)). Furthermore, supplementary guidelines reported in included articles were systematically searched, as well as Google Scholar.
Results:
Seventeen guidelines were included, of which one was in Chinese and 16 were in English. The mean reporting rate of the 35 items specified was 14.9 (42.5%); only five CPGs (29.4%) had a reporting rate >50%. Of the 35 items, three were very frequently reported. The reporting proportion of the seven domains (basic information, background, evidence, recommendations, review and quality assurance, funding and declaration and management of interests, and other information) were 64.7%, 36.8%, 50.6%, 42.9%, 8.82%, 33.8%, and 31.4%, respectively.
Conclusion:
The reporting quality of the present guidelines for gout and hyperuricemia is relatively poor. We suggest that the RIGHT reporting checklist should be used by CPG developers to ensure higher reporting quality of future guidelines.
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Factual:
The following points emphasize the significance of upholding accurate and unbiased documentation in healthcare.