Guideline organizations' guidance documents paper 8: considering equity

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Medical Guidelines
• Health Equity

Background:

• Guideline development requires conscious consideration of populations experiencing inequities to improve health equity.
• Guideline developers must integrate equity considerations throughout the entire guideline development process.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess whether and how guideline-producing organizations incorporate equity into their guideline development processes.
• To analyze the extent of equity considerations in publicly available guidance documents from these organizations.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive summary of guideline-producing organizations was conducted.
• Publicly available guidance documents on guideline development were retrieved and screened.
• Information on equity considerations was abstracted using the GIN-McMaster guideline development checklist topics.

Main Results:

• 52% of 133 organizations considered equity in their guidance documents.
• Equity was most frequently addressed in "guideline group membership" (57%) and least in "conflict of interest considerations" (1%).
• Considerations were limited to a median of 2 topics per organization, with "inequitable or equality" and "minority or disadvantaged" being common terms.

Conclusions:

• Over half of guideline-producing organizations acknowledge equity in their development processes.
• Current equity considerations are restricted in scope, focusing on limited populations and topics.
• Further efforts are needed to comprehensively integrate health equity into all aspects of guideline development.