Quality evaluation of clinical practice guidelines for placenta accreta spectrum disorders

We evaluated the quality of the published clinical practice guidelines on placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) disorders to provide reference for the development of high-quality PAS guidelines.

China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were systematically searched. Quality assessments were conducted using the appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation (AGREE) II framework and Reporting Items for practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) checklist. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to measure the agreement among reviewers.

In total, 13 guidelines from different countries, published between 2015 and 2021 were included. There included 9 official guidelines, 3 consensuses, and 1 standard reference and covered subjects including epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment. The mean standardized scores across 6 domains (scope and purpose, stakeholder involvement, rigor of development, clarity of presentation, applicability, and editorial independence) were 53.63%, 27.35%, 33.57%, 72.01%, 19.39% and 41.02%, respectively. Of the 13 guidelines, 11 were classified as grade B, whereas 2 as grade C. According to the RIGHT checklist, the overall reporting rate of the 13 guidelines ranged from 28.57% to 54.29%.

The current guidelines for PAS demonstrate commendable methodological and reporting qualities. However, the methodological and reporting quality of PAS CPGs still need to be further improved, particularly in stakeholder involvement, the rigor of development, applicability, and editorial independence domains.