Methodological Rigour and Transparency of Clinical Practice Guidelines Developed by Neurology Professional Societies in Croatia

Background: Clinical practice guidelines are systematically created documents that summarize knowledge and assist in delivering high-quality medicine by identifying evidence that supports best clinical care. They are produced not only by international professional groups but also by local professionals to address locally-relevant clinical practice. We evaluated the methodological rigour and transparency of guideline development in neurology formulated by professionals in a local medical community. Methods: We analyzed clinical guidelines in neurology publicly available at the web-site of the Physicians ’ Assembly in Croatia in 2012: 6 guidelines developed by Croatian authors and 1 adapted from the European Federation of Neurological Societies. The quality was assessed by 2 independent evaluators using the AGREE II instrument. We also conducted a search of the Cochrane Library to identify potential changes in recommendation from Cochrane systematic reviews included in guideline preparation. Results: The methodological quality of the guidelines greatly varied across different domains. ’’Scope and Purpose’ ’ and ’’Clarity of Presentation‘ ‘ domains received high scores (100 % [95 % confidence interval (CI) 98.5–100] and 97 % [77.9–100], respectively), the lowest scores were in ‘‘Stakeholder Involvement‘ ‘ (19 % [15.5–34.6]) and ‘‘Editorial Independence’ ’ (0 % [0– 19.2]). Conclusions of 3 guidelines based on Cochrane systematic reviews were confirmed in updated versions and on