• 1. Clinical Epidemiology Research Center, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, P. R. China;
  • 2. School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, P. R. China;
  • 3. School of Public Health, Harvard University, Massachusetts 02115, USA;
TAO Liyuan, Email: tendytly@163.com; ZHAN Siyan, Email: siyan-zhan@bjmu.edu.cn
Export PDF Favorites Scan Get Citation

Objective  To review main obstacles to health care professionals' adherence to clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) by employing the scoping review method and a determinants framework, and to explore the effect of implementation strategies in intervention researches on guideline adherence. Methods  The articles published from January 1, 2011 to June 10, 2023 were retrieved from the PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Library, SinoMed, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP databases. The original literature on the CPGs implementation obstacles and strategies was included, and the primary and secondary screening of the literature were completed by four researchers according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The basic characteristics of the literature, the factors affecting the implementation of the CPGs, and the strategies used were extracted. The results were analyzed and summarized using qualitative and quantitative methods. Results  A total of 61 articles were included in the scoping review. The factors affecting the implementation of CPGs could be divided into five categories: guidelines themselves, external factors, internal factors, individual factors, and implementation process. The most common implementation obstacles were insufficient knowledge or skills of professionals regarding guidelines (n=21, 34.4%), insufficient necessity of using guidelines according to doctors (n=17, 27.9%), and unreasonable factors within hospital (n=16, 26.2%). The factors that promoted the implementation of CPGs included guidelines based on high-quality evidence (n=5, 8.2%), good department or hospital culture (n=4, 6.6%), convenient accessibility of guideline knowledge and information (n=4, 6.6%), and doctors’ excellent professional ability (n=4, 6.6%). The overall effectiveness of the guideline implementation strategy was 50%. Clinical decision support system (CDSS) could improve the adherence of CPGs. Guideline education or training was one of the most commonly used methods, but the effect of improving guideline compliance was unstable. Conclusion  The primary challenges in implementing guidelines include inadequate professional capacity and demand, suboptimal hospital infrastructure and limited resources. However, the obstacles are not absolute. It is recommended to use implementation strategies to improve the absorption and implementation of guidelines, among which CDSS is an effective measure for promoting guideline adherence.

Citation: LIAO Jiaojiao, WANG Zhaoyu, WANG Hui, TAO Liyuan, ZHAN Siyan. Barriers and strategies in guideline implementation: a scoping review based on theoretical framework. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2024, 24(8): 934-942. doi: 10.7507/1672-2531.202311175 Copy

  • Previous Article

    Impact of evidence-based learning method on medical education: an overview of systematic reviews
  • Next Article

    Analyzing and advising on clinical outcome assessment measurements translation and cross-cultural adaptation