Guideline adherence in German routine care of children and adolescents with ADHD: an observational study

AbstractAlthough guidelines for the assessment and treatment of mental disorders in childhood and adolescence have been available in Germany for several years, there are barely any data on adherence to guidelines in national routine care. Therefore, the study aimed at a nationwide evaluation of guideline adherence (GA) for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in German routine care in various groups of health care providers (HCPs). Besides a detailed description of GA, the study focused on examining possible differences between professional groups. Furthermore, data based on global self-reports of clinicians were compared with ratings of documented care in individual patients. Protocols of 73 clinicians regarding their handling of ADHD in routine care for 167 patients were rated according to German guideline recommendations for ADHD care. GA was measured as the proportion of components fulfilled in each individual patient as documented by the HCP. The results were compared to a preceding interview with clinicians regarding their GA. Multilevel models were constructed to detect differences in GA between professional groups. Based on mandatory guideline components, adherence rates of 38.9 –72.7% were found and classified as moderate (33.3% <  GA ≤ 66.6%) to high (GA >  66.6%). The comparison of the GA between the professional groups generally yielded only small differences. Correlations bet...
Source: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research