Background: Clinical guidelines should be updated to maintain their validity. Our aim was to estimate the length of time before recommendations become outdated.
Methods:We used a retrospective cohort design and included recommendations from clinical guidelines developed in the Spanish National Health System clinical guideline program since 2008. We performed a descriptive analysis of references, recommendations and resources used, and a survival analysis of re commendations using the Kaplan-Meier method.
Results:We included 113 recommendations from 4 clinical guidelines with a median of 4 years since the most recent search (range 3.9-4.4 yr). We retrieved 39 136 references (range 3343-14 787) using an exhaustive literature search, 668 of which were related to the recommendations in our sample. We identified 69 (10.3%) key references, corresponding to 25 (22.1%) recommendations that required updating. Ninety-two percent (95% confidence interval 86.9-97.0) of the recommendations were valid 1 year after their development. This probability decreased at 2 (85.7%), 3 (81.3%) and 4 years (77.8%).
Interpretation:Recommendations quickly become outdated, with 1 out of 5 recommendations being out of date after 3 years. Waiting more than 3 years to review a guideline is potentially too long.
Abstract
BackgroundThe resilience to face disease is a process of positive adaptation despite the loss of health. It involves developing vitality and skills to overcome the negative effects of adversity, risks, and vulnerability caused by disease. In Mexico, the Mexican Resilience Measurement Scale (RESI-M) has been validated with a general population and has a five-factor structure. However, this scale does not allow evaluation of resilience in specific subpopulations, such as caregivers.MethodThis study investigated the psychometric properties of RESI-M in 446 family caregivers of children with chronic diseases. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed, internal consistency values were calculated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and mean comparisons were determined using t-tests.ResultsThe expected five-factor model showed an adequate fit with the data based on a maximum likelihood test. The internal consistency for each factor ranged from .76 to .93, and the global internal consistency was .95. No average difference in RESI-M and its factors was found between women and men.ConclusionThe RESI-M showed internal consistency and its model of five correlated factors was valid among family caregivers of children with chronic diseases.
The quality of guidelines for perioperative care is moderate. Measures should be taken to guarantee that CPGs are based on the best available evidence and rigorously developed and reported. Greater efforts are needed to provide high-quality guidelines that serve as a useful and reliable tool for clinical decision-making in this field.
BackgroundThe influence, legitimacy and application of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) in the world is growing as a tool that integrates, the best available evidence to decision making in patient care. Our goal was to identify the relationship between self-perception about the relevance of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and the degree of basic knowledge of this discipline in a group of physicians.MethodsA survey was carried out in a third level public hospital in Mexico City. Self-perception was measured by means of a structured scale, and the degree of knowledge through parameter or “rubrics” methodology.ResultsA total of 320 questionnaires were given to 55 medical students (17 %); 45 pre-graduate medical interns (14 %); 118 medical residents (37 %) and 102 appointed physicians of different specialties (32 %).Self-perception of EBM: The majority of those surveyed (n = 274, 86 %) declared that they were very or moderately familiar with EBM. The great majority (n = 270, 84 %) believe that EBM is very important in clinical practice and 197 physicians (61 %) said that they implement it always or usually. The global index of self-perception was 75 %.Knowledge of EBM: Definition of EBM; Seven of those surveyed (2 %) included 3 of the 4 characteristics of the definition, 82 (26 %) mentioned only two characteristics of the definition, 152 (48 %) mentioned only one characteristic and 79 (25 %) did not include any characteristic of EBM. Phases of the EBM process: The majority of those surveyed (n = 218, 68 %) did not include the steps that characterize the practice of EBM, of which 79 participants (25 %) mentioned elements not related to it. The global index of knowledge was 19 %.ConclusionsThe majority of the surveyed physicians have a high self-perception of the relevance of EBM. In spite of this, the majority of them did not know the characteristics that define the EBM and phases of the process for its practice. A major discrepancy was found between self-perception and the level of basic knowledge of EBM among the surveyed physicians.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0681-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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