The conditions and the purpose of guideline-compliant regulatory studies are completely different from those of academic studies (Tyl, 2009a, 2009b).
We found 26 studies of fair to good quality from which four main themes emerged: Applicability of guidelines, Purpose of guidelines for patient, Purpose of guidelines for health care system and physician, and Properties of guidelines.
The thematic analysis resulted in four overarching themes: Applicability of guidelines; Purpose of guidelines for patient; Purpose of guidelines for health care system and physician; and Properties of guidelines.
The survey conducted by SIGN exploring the public's understanding of the purpose of guidelines indicated that 44% thought guidelines to be 'consistent best care/practice' [ 34].
There appears to be only a weak relationship between the purpose of guidelines and many of the outcomes usually measured in clinical research, that is, the source of evidence for guideline development (evidence-based).
Nine studies described the potential purpose of guidelines for patients and the public and the role that guidelines have played to date [ 6, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 27, 31, 38].
This has implications for the design of systematic review author teams and advisory boards, as well as for how to form panels of people who make judgments about applicability for the purpose of guidelines or policy decisions.
Several basic features (e.g. the purpose of guidelines, resource implications, clarity of recommendations) have been shown to play an important role in guideline usage [ 3, 22], which suggests that the development phase offers great opportunities to improve the implementation of guidelines.
Education about the intended purpose and use of guidelines focusing on patient centered care will be central in moving forward.
Although prescribing is a part of the majority of the guidelines, if the purpose of the guideline is not prescribing per se; then the article may not be included in here.
