TABLE 4.

Perspective taken and description of strength and conditionality of recommendations

	Strong recommendation	Conditional recommendation
Patients	Most individuals in this situation would want the recommended course of action and only a small proportion would not Formal decision aids are not likely to be needed to help individuals make decisions consistent with their values and preferences	The majority of individuals in this situation would want the suggested course of action, but many would not
Clinicians	Most individuals should receive the intervention Adherence to this recommendation according to the guidelines could be used as a quality criterion or performance indicator	Recognise that different choices will be appropriate for individual patients, and that patients must be helped to arrive at a management decision consistent with their values and preferences Decision aids may be useful in helping individuals to make decisions consistent with their values and preferences
Policy-makers	The recommendation can be adopted as policy in most situations	Policy-making will require substantial debate and involvement of various stakeholders