3.2. Perspective of outcomes

Different audiences are likely to have different perspectives on the importance of outcomes.

The importance of outcomes is likely to vary within and across cultures or when considered from the perspective of patients, clinicians or policy-makers. It is essential to take cultural diversity into account when deciding on relative importance of outcomes, particularly when developing recommendations for an international audience. Guideline panels should also decide what perspective they are taking. Guideline panels may also choose to take the perspective of the society as a whole (e.g. a guideline panel developing recommendations about pharmacological management of bacterial sinusitis may take the patient perspective when considering health outcomes, but also a society perspective when considering antimicrobial resistance to specific drugs).