GRADE equity guidelines 1: considering health equity in GRADE guideline development: introduction and rationale

Objectives: This paper introduces the rationale and methods for explicitly considering health equity in the GRADE methodology for development of clinical, public health and health system guidelines. Study design and setting: guidance for guideline development. Study design and Setting: We searched for guideline methodology papers, conceptual papers about health equity and examples of guidelines which considered health equity explicitly. We held three meetings with GRADE working group members, and invited comments from the GRADE working group listserve. Results: We developed three papers on incorporating equity considerations into the overall approach to guideline development, rating certainty and assembling the evidence base and evidence to decision/recommendation. Conclusion: Clinical and public health guidelines have a role to play in promoting health equity by explicitly considering equity in the process of guideline development