Wording Approaches to Convey the Strength of Recommendations in Health Guidelines

Status

Recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

DRKS

Registry ID

DRKS00038251

Enrollment

1011

Registered

2025-11-21

Start date

2026-06-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2026-08-03

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Understanding of the Strength of Recommendations in Health Guidelines

Interventions

Group 1: This is a one-time, non-interventional online survey that takes about five minutes to complete. After giving their consent and providing some basic information, participants are randomly assi

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

16 Years to No maximum

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: Fluent reading of the German language

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: Lack of capacity to consent, insufficient knowledge of German, and automated/inconsistent responses (bot/quality checks)

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
The primary objective is to compare three German-language formulation approaches for recommendations in health guidelines with regard to their understanding of the strength of the recommendation (‘strong’ vs. ‘conditional’).	—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Secondary outcomes measure how the three formulation approaches influence the intended actions of relevant decision-makers (doctors, patients, policymakers) as well as individual health decisions.	—

Countries

Austria, Germany, Switzerland

Contacts

Public ContactAlicia Zink

Universitätsklinikum Freiburg

alicia.zink@uniklinik-freiburg.de+49 761 270 85341

Outcome results

None listed

Source: DRKS (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Aug 10, 2026