APPLICABILITY MAGNITUDE OF CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR DIAGNOSIS, PREVENTION & TREATMENT OF OSTEOPOROSIS IN GYNECOLOGY MEDICAL PRACTICE

Clinical practice guidelines are mostly developed and established by professional experts. Sometimes, qualities of guidelines are not up to the marks. Guidelines development program should be designed appropriately; otherwise, quality of patient care would be affected. Main objective of current study is to assess the quality and extent of applicability of IOF (International Osteoporosis Foundation) guidelines recommended for Asian countries particularly in Pakistani population by gynecology medical practice. The research was carried out during the period December 2014 to January 2017. Sample size is determined by power analysis technique with large effect size and 5% level of significance. Primary data is gathered from gynecology practitioners who work in clinical settings either government or private. Guidelines are assessed majorly on six domains; scope and purpose, stakeholder involvement, rigour of development, clarity of presentation, applicability, editorial independence and overall quality. Statistical evaluation of data was made by SPSS 20. Gynecologists from hospital are (47%), clinic (53%), from setup of private sector (73%) and government (27%). Magnitudes of six domains are scope and purpose 65%, stakeholder involvement 36%, rigour of development 75%, clarity of presentation 76%, applicability 73%, and editorial independence 61% (t= -5.78, p<0.002 at 95% CI, SD: 15.09, SE: 6.16). Research findings showed that clinical practice guideline was not rejected by most of gynecologists. Majority (63.3%) of practitioners demand guidelines to be modified as per local requirement, 10% gynecologist rate the use of guideline without any modifications while 26.67% professionals are not in favor of use of these guidelines during clinical practice.