Guideline developers in low- and middle-income countries want to develop and use living guidelines, but are currently limited by important barriers: findings from a qualitative study

Objectives

Evidence-based clinical guidelines have the potential to improve health care and health outcomes. Living guidelines methods provide an approach to ensuring guidelines are always up-to-date, maximizing this potential. However, to date, most work on living guidelines has been conducted in high income countries. The objective of this study is to explore the barriers and facilitators to the development, adaptation, and use of living guidelines among evidence-based guideline developers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Study Design and Setting

We used a descriptive qualitative study design. We employed purposive and snowball sampling techniques to recruit guideline developers from LMICs and World Health Organization offices to participate in online, semistructured interviews. Data were analysed using a thematic approach with NVivo 20 software. Ethics approval was granted by Monash University.

Results

We interviewed 18 participants from LMICs (Colombia, India, Iran, Indonesia, Argentina, and Malaysia) and WHO offices (including headquarters, regional offices, and country offices). Two main themes emerged, along with six associated subthemes. The main themes were as follows: (1) People in LMICs want living guidelines and (2) Resource limitations and their implications for living guidelines in LMICs.

Conclusion

Our research identified that guideline developers in LMICs have a strong desire to both develop and use living guidelines, but are currently limited by important barriers. Initiatives to support development, adaptation, and use of living guidelines in LMICs may help overcome barriers and meet the need for living guidelines in LMICs. It is also essential to design strategies that overcome identified barriers to developing, adapting, and implementing living guidelines, such as a lack of resources, delays in updates, and limited accessibility.

Plain Language Summary

This study looked at how living (continuously updated) approaches can be used to develop, adapt, and use clinical guidelines in settings with limited resources, and explored the pros and cons of each. The findings revealed a strong need to develop and use living guidelines in low-resource settings despite challenges, such as resource scarcity, delays in updating, and limited access to these guidelines. Overall, the findings revealed that living guidelines were worthwhile in LMICs despite all of the related challenges.