Compliance of health professionals with the recommendations of the ESPEN Clinical Practice Guidelines: Results of ad hoc questionnaire

Background & aims: There is little information regarding the compliance of the ESPEN guidelines by health professionals. This survey aims to assess the compliance to these guidelines by the ESPEN members. Methods: Structured questionnaires were emailed to ESPEN members to collect information on: a) characteristics of the responders (demographic items, affiliations, practical/scientific involvement in clinical nutrition); b) satisfaction and compliance with grade A recommendations of 10 pathologic areas reported in the ESPEN guidelines; c) missing/poorly-represented issues; d) suggestions to improve the quality of future guidelines. Results: There were 131 responders (81% from Europe). Compliance in distinct pathologic areas was 77% on average and ranged from 66% (intensive care) to 85% (renal diseases). Surgery, intensive care and liver diseases had the higher number of disregarded recommendations and experts/specialists were somewhat more likely to disagree with them. Missing/underrepresented issues were more frequent in intensive care area followed by geriatrics. Half of responders would appreciate a second option, should the grade A recommendation be impossible to follow. Conclusion: ESPEN guidelines were generally well acknowledged by the users despite disagreement and dissatisfaction with a few of them. This survey provides the cue to complete/improve future guidelines and to address the research to more crucial issues.