Systematic reviews of values and preferences: Methodological challenges, approaches and implications for clinical guideline development
Date
2026
Authors
Bulto, L.N.
Munn, Z.
Stern, C.
Pollock, D.
Barker, T.H.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 2026; 1-12
Statement of Responsibility
Lemma N. Bulto, Zachary Munn, Cindy Stern, Danielle Pollock, and Timothy Hugh Barker
Conference Name
Abstract
Systematic reviews of values and preferences are essential to ensure that healthcare decision-making and clinical practice guidelines reflect what truly matters to patients, caregivers, policymakers, and other interest-holders. These reviews synthesize evidence on how people value different health outcomes and provide critical information about the trade-offs they are willing to make (e.g. the willingness to accept an intervention’s side effects to gain a meaningful benefit for a more highly valued outcome). The importance of these reviews in developing trustworthy guidelines is evident, yet limited methodological guidance exists. The process of conduct- ing these reviews presents unique methodological challenges. This paper addresses these challenges by providing a systematic, step- by-step guide for planning and conducting value and preference reviews. We detail key considerations for each stage, from formu- lating the review question to assessing the certainty of evidence and illustrate these methodological approaches with examples from published reviews to enhance practical understanding.
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Dissertation Note
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OnlinePubl
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© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4. 0/)