Qualitative evidence to improve guidelines and health decision-making

Decision-makers are increasingly using qualitative evidence to understand various socioeconomic contexts, health systems and communities. This type of evidence is useful to assess the needs, values, perceptions and experiences of stakeholders, including policymakers, providers, communities and patients, and is thus crucial for complex health decision-making. Yet, despite the relevance of findings from qualitative evidence syntheses, there is limited guidance on how to assess and use this evidence in policy and practice. To address this need, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research have supported the development of a new approach called GRADE-CERQual (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation-Confidence in the evidence from reviews of qualitative research)

a:1:{i:0;s:54:"http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/96/2/17-206540/en/";}

Langlois EV, Tuncalp O, Norris SL, Askew I, Ghaffar A. Qualitative evidence to improve guidelines and health decision-making. Bulletin of World Health Organization. 2018;96(2):79-79A.