Background:

The care of patients with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias has become a priority for healthcare systems. This is evidenced by the increasing number of clinical practice guidelines (CPG) developed in our country aimed to help professionals in making health decisions. The aim of our study was to evaluate the quality of the Spanish CPG on Alzheimer's disease and other dementias using the AGREE II instrument.

Method:

Nine GPC were selected according to the inclusion criteria: Full GPC available; aimed to healthcare professionals; and published between 2002-2013. Two reviewers independently assessed the quality of the guides through the AGREE II instrument, in order to assess the methodological rigor and transparency of the GPC.

Results:

88.8% of the guides scored a very poor quality editorial independence. Respect to rigor in the development and clarity of presentation, 77.7% also scored very low quality. There is a guide that stands out for a score above 50% in all domains of the instrument.

Conclusions:

The worst scored domains were Editorial independence, Rigor in the development and Applicability, in this order. The highest rated domains were Scope and Objectives and Clarity of Presentation. The guideline of the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality is the best, obtaining a score above 50% in all domains. Overall, the quality of the 9 guidelines evaluated is low or very low, only two of them score as good overall quality.

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