Table 5 Subthemes with illustrative quotes from the properties of guidelines
Subtheme | Illustrative quote | Participant & group number |
|---|---|---|
Language and tone | “…there was a lot of medical jargon…I know from experience and you know congratulations for producing this booklet [SIGN patient guideline] but patient themselves cannot all read it… | P2, G4 |
Meaningfulness | There’s no point in teaching somebody, or getting somebody to look at how the guidelines are produced when they’re actually wanting to find out ”What Is Obesity"? | Interview 1 |
Trustworthiness and credibility | …it gives it more weight if it’s based on a guideline…because you assume…even…if you don’t understand exactly what a “guideline” means…that it’s based on some evidence from somewhere that this is a good thing to do, someone’s looked at some evidence and made a guideline… | P4, G1 |
Guidelines as restrictors of access to treatment | …CBT is the one that doctors know about but it’s not the only solution, and I think that this idea that because there is evidence then you’ve got to refer people to CBT, I think it’s really really dangerous… | P1, G4 |