Mapping of the current guidelines’s of the most common diagnosed top 10 diseases in Turkey according to Turkish statistical institute health data and evaluation of that guidelines

Abstract

Objective: Clinical practice guidelines that are a tangible form of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) are very important. Guidelines are a tool that can significantly contribute to the physicians in the decision-making process. Development of high quality and large number of clinical practice guidelines in a country is one of the indicators of development for the country’s health care system. In this study, the number of the current guidelines’s of top 10 diagnosis by doctors in Turkey according to 2013 health data released by Turkish Statistical Institute (TSI) was detected and those guidelines were evaluated. Material and Methods: The current data on the most frequently diagnosed diseases of our country was reached from TSI. According to the inclusion criteria of the study, examined on Turkish guidelines which were developed for doctors, included recommendations about prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disease, prepared and published within the last 10 years. The guidelines of the Ministry of Health were reached by searching the official website and google meta-search engines, while we reached to the guidelines of NGOs from the “Map of Clinical Practice Guidelines of Civil Society Organizations for Turkey”. The guidelines of the most common 10 diseases of our country were elaborated in terms of prepared organizations, preparation and updating years, guideline development methodologies. Results: 32 guidelines were reached in research; 3 guidelines related to musculoskeletal problems; 5 related to hypertension; 5 related to rheumatic joint disease; 1 on gastric ulcer; 6 about diabetes; 2 related to osteoarthritis, arthrosis, degenerative joint diseases; 3 about iron deficiency with anemia; 3 about sinusitis; 4 related to severe migraine and other headaches. 18 guidelines of the 32 guidelines were developed by the health ministry. Conclusion: As a result of this study, we have not reached a data base or a resource which consists of all existing guidelines of our country. There are guidelines for primary care related to all diseases. Guidelines which were prepared for primary care were located within the scope of the Electronic Evidence-Based Medicine Guidelines and Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines for Primary Care. Like in this way, multiple guidelines in a guideline is a nice application for guideline user to reach easily to guidelines about wanted subject. In addition, preparation of the guidelines intented for family practitioners in the form of consisting of multiple diseases and comprehensively will be more practical for users.