Title: Quality assessment of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the diagnosis and treatment
of Inflammatory Bowel Disease using the AGREE II instrument: A Systematic Review.
Version: 1 Date: 16 Aug 2022
Reviewer's report:
This review described the quality  of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) on inflammatory bowel
diseases using the AGREE II instrument. Interestingly, the authors also evaluating the change
of CPG quality over time, comparing two periods (2012-2017 to 2018-2022).
There are few important points which should be clarified.
1. no date restriction was applied to the literature search and to the selection of the CPG, as
stated in the methods. However, only CPG published after 2012 were included in the analysis.
Was an effect of the inclusion criteria?
2. inclusion criteria should be better detailed. There are some international guidelines (i.e.
Practical guidelines on endoscopic treatment for Crohn’s disease strictures: a consensus
statement from the Global Interventional Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group, 2020) which
were not selected for the analysis, probably because only  CPG on medical  treatment and
not endoscopic or surgical topics were included.  Also, please, clarify what do you mean with
"conducted their search strategy in at least one database" in the methods. In the PRISMA diagram
there are several CPG excluded because of incomplete methodology or incomplete search
strategy. Please clarify.  What do these exclusion criteria mean exactly? Further guidelines were
not mentioned despite  apparently  in line with the inclusion criteria described in the methods
(i.e.  some  Spanish and Italian guidelines).
Title: Quality assessment of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the diagnosis and treatment
of Inflammatory Bowel Disease using the AGREE II instrument: A Systematic Review.
Version: 1 Date: 16 Aug 2022
Reviewer's report:
This review described the quality  of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) on inflammatory bowel
diseases using the AGREE II instrument. Interestingly, the authors also evaluating the change
of CPG quality over time, comparing two periods (2012-2017 to 2018-2022).
There are few important points which should be clarified.
1. no date restriction was applied to the literature search and to the selection of the CPG, as
stated in the methods. However, only CPG published after 2012 were included in the analysis.
Was an effect of the inclusion criteria?
2. inclusion criteria should be better detailed. There are some international guidelines (i.e.
Practical guidelines on endoscopic treatment for Crohn’s disease strictures: a consensus
statement from the Global Interventional Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group, 2020) which
were not selected for the analysis, probably because only  CPG on medical  treatment and
not endoscopic or surgical topics were included.  Also, please, clarify what do you mean with
"conducted their search strategy in at least one database" in the methods. In the PRISMA diagram
there are several CPG excluded because of incomplete methodology or incomplete search
strategy. Please clarify.  What do these exclusion criteria mean exactly? Further guidelines were
not mentioned despite  apparently  in line with the inclusion criteria described in the methods
(i.e.  some  Spanish and Italian guidelines).
Please review this paper.
user
Title: Quality assessment of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the diagnosis and treatment
of Inflammatory Bowel Disease using the AGREE II instrument: A Systematic Review.
Version: 1 Date: 16 Aug 2022
Reviewer's report:
This review described the quality  of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) on inflammatory bowel
diseases using the AGREE II instrument. Interestingly, the authors also evaluating the change
of CPG quality over time, comparing two periods (2012-2017 to 2018-2022).
There are few important points which should be clarified.
1. no date restriction was applied to the literature search and to the selection of the CPG, as
stated in the methods. However, only CPG published after 2012 were included in the analysis.
Was an effect of the inclusion criteria?
2. inclusion criteria should be better detailed. There are some international guidelines (i.e.
Practical guidelines on endoscopic treatment for Crohn’s disease strictures: a consensus
statement from the Global Interventional Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group, 2020) which
were not selected for the analysis, probably because only  CPG on medical  treatment and
not endoscopic or surgical topics were included.  Also, please, clarify what do you mean with
"conducted their search strategy in at least one database" in the methods. In the PRISMA diagram
there are several CPG excluded because of incomplete methodology or incomplete search
strategy. Please clarify.  What do these exclusion criteria mean exactly? Further guidelines were
not mentioned despite  apparently  in line with the inclusion criteria described in the methods
(i.e.  some  Spanish and Italian guidelines).
assistant