Poor overall quality of clinical practice guidelines for musculoskeletal pain: a systematic review

© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. OBJECTIVES: Undertake a systematic critical appraisal of contemporary clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for co...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lin, I., Wiles, L., Waller, Rob, Goucke, R., Nagree, Y., Gibberd, M., Straker, Leon, Maher, C., O'Sullivan, P.
Format: Journal Article
Published: BMJ Group 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68727
Description
Summary:© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. OBJECTIVES: Undertake a systematic critical appraisal of contemporary clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for common musculoskeletal (MSK) pain conditions: spinal (lumbar, thoracic and cervical), hip/knee (including osteoarthritis) and shoulder.DESIGN: Systematic review of CPGs (PROSPERO number: CRD42016051653).Included CPGs were written in English, developed within the last 5?years, focused on adults and described development processes. Excluded CPGs were for: traumatic MSK pain, single modalities (eg, surgery), traditional healing/medicine, specific disease processes (eg, inflammatory arthropathies) or those that required payment.DATA SOURCES AND METHOD OF APPRAISAL: Four scientific databases (MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and Physiotherapy Evidence Database) and four guideline repositories. The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument was used for critical appraisal.RESULTS: 4664 records were identified, and 34 CPGs were included. Most were for osteoarthritis (n=12) or low back pain (n=11), most commonly from the USA (n=12). The mean overall AGREE II score was 45% (SD=19.7). Lowest mean domain scores were for applicability (26%, SD=19.5) and editorial independence (33%, SD=27.5). The highest score was for scope and purpose (72%, SD=14.3). Only 8 of 34 CPGS were high quality: for osteoarthritis (n=4), low back pain (n=2), neck (n=1) and shoulder pain (n=1).