Guidelines are often based on evidence not relevant to primary care, study finds

Almost two thirds of research cited in support of primary care recommendations is based on higher risk populations and could lead to overtreatment, say researchers.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology analysed 22 guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that were relevant to primary care.1 These contained 1185 recommendations, of which 495 were evidence based and …