BACKGROUND: Numerous guidelines have been developed in tobacco cessation worldwide for providing evidence-based interventions to help individuals quit smoking and other forms of tobacco use. Despite their widespread availability, a critical evaluation of the guidelines to assess their methodological quality, consistency, and applicability across different healthcare settings, populations, and regions has not been carried out. Thus, we aimed to perform a systematic review assessing the quality of guidelines on tobacco cessation.
METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane databases were electronically searched in December 2024. Additionally, the Guidelines International Network, Google Scholar, and references of relevant articles were also searched. Guidelines released within the last 10 years globally in the English language on tobacco cessation were included. The critical evaluation of the guidelines was carried out by the AGREE II instrument. The instrument comprises 23 key items within six domains and two additional global rating items.
RESULTS: A total of 20 guidelines were included in this review. The AGREE II showed only one domain with a mean score of more than 70% across the guidelines. A comparative evaluation of all the guidelines revealed consistently higher scores in the clarity of presentation domain (74.4 + 20.9). Lowest mean scores were reported for editorial independence (58.29 + 19.36), followed by the applicability (59.18+18.02) domain.
CONCLUSIONS: The guidelines on tobacco cessation have demonstrated clarity in presentation; however, there still exists a scope of improvement in domains such as editorial independence, applicability, and rigor of development. Addressing the shortcomings is of paramount importance for promoting evidence-based cessation practices and for effective delivery of tobacco cessation services.