The GRADE evidence-to-decision (EtD) framework was developed as a way to more explicitly and transparently inform the considerations of the implications of clinical recommendations, such as the potential positive or negative impacts on health equity. A new analysis of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines published between 2014 and 2019 - over half (54%) of which used the EtD framework - examines the consideration of health equities in the guidelines' resulting recommendations.
Dewidar and colleagues found that the guidelines utilizing the EtD framework were more likely to be addressing health issues in socially disadvantaged populations (42% of those developed with the EtD versus 24% of those without). What's more, the use of the EtD framework has risen over time, from 10% of guidelines published in 2016 (the year of the EtD's introduction) to 100% of those published within the first four months of 2019. Use of the term "health equity" increased to a similar degree over this period.
Just over one-third (38%) of recommendations were judged to increase or probably increase health equity, while 15% selected the judgment "Don't know/uncertain" and 8% provided no judgment. Just over one-quarter (28%) of the recommendations utilizing the EtD framework provided evidence for the judgment. When detailed judgments were provided, they were more likely to discuss the potential impacts of place of residence and socioeconomic status and less likely to explicitly consider gender, education, race, social capital, occupation, or religion.
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The authors conclude that while consideration of the potential impacts of recommendations on health equity has increased considerably in recent years, reporting of these judgments is still often incomplete. Reporting which published research evidence or additional considerations were used to make a judgment, as well as considering the various PROGRESS factors (Place, Race, Occupation, Gender, Religion, Education, Socioeconomic status, and Social capital) will likely improve the transparency of recommendations in future guidelines where health equity impacts are of concern.
Dwidr, O., Tsang, P., León-Garcia, M., Mathew, C., Antequera, A., Baldeh, T., ... & Welch, V. 2020. Over half of WHO guidelines published from 2014 to 2019 explicitly considered health equity issues: A cross-sectional suvey. J Clin Epidemiol 127:125-133.
Manuscript available from the publisher's website here.
