Evaluation of the Quality of Management Guidelines for Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Researchers reviewed 10 sets of guidelines for managing autism in children and teenagers, published between 2014-2022. They found big differences in how good these guidelines were. The best guidelines came from Scotland (2016) and England (2021). Most guidelines were clear about their goals and recommendations, but varied widely in other areas. This shows that families and professionals need to be careful about which guidelines they follow.

This systematic review evaluated the quality of 10 clinical management guidelines for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder published between 2014-2022. Using the AGREE II assessment tool, four independent reviewers found considerable variation in guideline quality, with high inter-rater agreement (53.3%-85.0%). Guidelines scored best in scope/purpose (median 86.1%), clarity of statements (median 88.2%), and editorial independence (median 71.9%). Two guidelines were identified as high-quality and recommended for adoption: the 2016 Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network guideline (88.7%) and the 2021 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline (84.9%).

The study highlights the need for improved standardization in autism management guideline development.

Clinicians should prioritize using the Scottish (2016) and NICE (2021) guidelines for autism management. The significant quality variation suggests careful evaluation is needed before implementing any guideline. This research supports the need for standardized development processes for autism management guidelines.

The study only included 10 guidelines from 2014-2022, potentially missing earlier or more recent publications. No sample size reported for the guideline assessment process. The abstract doesn't specify which databases were searched or inclusion criteria used.

To systematically assess the quality of management guidelines for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, analyze key management recommendation differences and causes among guidelines, and provide better guideline assessments for clinical workers. Clinical guidelines for managing children and adolescents with autism were systematically retrieved from a database. Four reviewers independently evaluated the guidelines using the assessment guideline tool, Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II), and the intra-group correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to measure the consistency of the assessment guidelines among the four reviewers and the differences and reasons for the recommendations and supporting evidence were compared and analyzed. A total of ten management guidelines for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder published from 2014 to 2022 were included in this study, with high overall agreement between raters (range of intra-group correlation coefficients: 53.3% ∼ 85.0%), and areas with better median scores and ranges in Protocol II were as follows: domain 1 (scope and purpose, median = 86.1%, 59.7%-98.6%), Domain 4 (clarity of statements, median = 88.2%, 38.9%-100.0%) and domain 6 (independence of editors, median = 71.9%, 0.0%-100.0%).

Among the ten guidelines the guidelines published by the Scott Intercollegiate Guidelines Network in 2016 and by the National Institute for health and care excellence in 2021 scored high and were recommended for adoption, 88.7%, 84.9%, respectively. There is considerable variation between the quality of guidelines for the management of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.