Table 2.
Demographic characteristics of participants
| Characteristic | No. n = 83 |
|---|---|
| Type of participant | |
| Developer or researcher (international)* | 38 |
| Clinician (Canadian)† | 28 |
| Policy- or decision-maker (Canadian)‡ | 17 |
| Sex | |
| Male | 54 |
| Female | 29 |
| Age, yr | |
| 25–34 | 3 |
| 35–44 | 25 |
| 45–54 | 35 |
| 55–64 | 20 |
| ≥ 65 | 0 |
| Trained in methods of health research or evidence-based care | 64 |
| Academically appointed | 61 |
| Self-rated level of experience as developer of clinical practice guidelines | |
| Novice | 28 |
| Expert | 44 |
| Not applicable | 11 |
| Had experience as evaluator of clinical practice guidelines | 65 |
| Context of experience as user of clinical practice guidelines | |
| Clinical decisions or clinical practice | 66 |
| Policy-related decisions | 51 |
| Administrative decisions | 51 |
| Health system decisions | 51 |
| Had used AGREE in guideline development, no. of times | |
| 0 | 42 |
| 1–5 | 22 |
| 6–10 | 6 |
| 11–15 | 3 |
| 16–20 | 0 |
| > 20 | 10 |
| Had used AGREE to evaluate guidelines, no. of times | |
| 0 | 24 |
| 1–5 | 34 |
| 6–10 | 7 |
| 11–15 | 6 |
| 16–20 | 1 |
| > 20 | 11 |
Recruited from partner organizations, submitting authors of the Canadian Medical Association Guidelines Infobase, participants in the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and the Conference on Guideline Standardization (COGS), members of the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) working group, and members of the Guidelines International Network.
Recruited from publicly-available lists of websites of Canadian provincial colleges of physicians and surgeons (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island).
Recruited from members of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, Cancer Care Ontario Committee to Evaluate Drugs, heads of clinical programs of Cancer Care Ontario, Canadian Pharmacists’ Association, Health Canada (Chronic and Continuing Care Division, Health Products and Food Branch, Pharmaceuticals Management Strategies, Therapeutic Effectiveness and Policy Bureau), and the Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee.