Evaluating the effectiveness of an educational and feedback intervention aimed at improving consideration of sex differences in guideline development

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the effect of an educational and feedback intervention to enhance consideration of sex differences in clinical guideline development. Design: Preintervention and postintervention questionnaires in intervention and control groups. Content analysis of intervention guidelines and former versions. Setting Guideline consultants, working-group members and guideline documents of two Dutch guidelinedeveloping organisations. Main outcome measures Attitudes of guideline developers concerning the importance of considering sex differences and the number of the sex-specific statements in the contents of guideline documents. Results: The attitude of the intervention group did not change significantly relative to the control group. Consideration of sex-related factors within the guidelines increased relative to available previous versions. Conclusion Education and expert feedback may increase consideration of sex differences in guidelines. Further efforts are needed to implement and test these interventions.