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Wording Approaches to Convey the Strength of Recommendations in Health Guidelines
Sponsor: McMaster University
Summary
Recommendations from health organizations rest on a scale. On this scale, some recommendations can be "stronger" than others. This "strength" should be easily understood by everyone, including members in the public and healthcare professionals. The survey results will help us find a better way to phrase recommendations.
Official title: Wording Approaches to Convey the Strength of Recommendations in Health Guidelines: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
16 Years - Any
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
741
Start Date
2025-08-01
Completion Date
2025-12-30
Last Updated
2026-10-02
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Conditions
Interventions
GRADE approach ("recommends" and "suggest")
"recommend" (strong) and "suggest" (conditional) Example: The guideline panel recommend(s)/suggest(s) \[against\] \[the intervention\], rather than \[the comparator\], for \[indication\].
New approach ("strongly recommends" and "conditionally recommends")
"strongly recommend" (strong) and "conditionally recommend" (conditional) Example: The guideline panel strongly recommend(s)/conditionally recommend(s) \[against\] \[the intervention\], rather than \[the comparator\], for \[indication\].
Alternate approach ("should" and "may")
"should" (strong) and "may" (conditional) Example: \[The intervention\] should/may \[not\] be \[verb\], rather than \[the comparator\], for \[indication\]
Locations (1)
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada