Using AGREE II to evaluate the quality of traditional medicine clinical practice guidelines in China.

Deng, Wei; Li, Le; Wang, Zixia; Chang, Xiaonan; Li, Rui; Fang, Ziye; Wei, Dang; Yao, Liang; Wang, Xiaoqin; Wang, Qi; An, Guanghui; Chen, Yaolong

OBJECTIVE To evaluate/assess the quality of the clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) of traditional medicine in China. METHODS We systematically searched the literature databases WanFang Data, VIP, CNKI, and CBM for studies published between 1978 and 2012 to identify and select CPGs of traditional medicine. We used the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) instrument to evaluate these guidelines. RESULTS A total of 75 guidelines were included, of which 46 guidelines (62%) were on Traditional Chinese Medicine, 19 (25%) on Chinese Integrated Medicine, and 10 (13%) on Uyghur Medicine. Most traditional medicine CPGs published in domestic journals scored <20% (range: 0% to 63%). Eleven (14%) CPGs were developed following the methodology of evidence-based medicine. In each domain of AGREE II, traditional medicine CPGs performed clearly better than international CPGs. The same trend was seen in guidelines of modern medicine. CONCLUSIONS An increasing amount of CPGs are being published, but their quality is low. Referring to the key points of international guidelines development, supervision through AGREE II, cooperating with international groups and exploring the strategy of guideline development could improve the quality of CPGs on traditional medicine.