Standards for the Reporting of Genetic Counseling Interventions in Research and Other Studies (GCIRS): an NSGC Task Force Report

Gillian W Hooker,M Mcallister,D Babu,Mf Myers,H Zierhut

doi:10.1007/s10897-017-0076-9

Abstract

As the demand for evidence to support the value of genetic counseling increases, it is critical that reporting of genetic counseling interventions in research and other types of studies (e.g. process improvement or service evaluation studies) adopt greater rigor. As in other areas of healthcare, the appraisal, synthesis, and translation of research findings into genetic counseling practice are likely to be improved if clear specifications of genetic counseling interventions are reported when studies involving genetic counseling are published. To help improve reporting practices, the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) convened a task force in 2015 to develop consensus standards for the reporting of genetic counseling interventions. Following review by the NSGC Board of Directors, the NSGC Practice Guidelines Committee and the editorial board of the Journal of Genetic Counseling, 23 items across 8 domains were proposed as standards for the reporting of genetic counseling interventions in the published literature (GCIRS: Genetic Counseling Intervention Reporting Standards). The authors recommend adoption of these standards by authors and journals when reporting studies involving genetic counseling interventions.

Highlights

As methodologies for synthesizing published health research mature (Moher 2009), reporting standards have been developed to allow for critical assessment of methodological quality, interpretation of findings, and comparison of findings across studies
The genetic counseling interventions in the published literature (GCIRS) checklist is intended as a tool for authors reporting studies of genetic counseling interventions to promote synthesis and translation of research and other findings into genetic counseling practice
The domains included in the checklist reported here overlap significantly with the general domains included in the TIDieR standards, intended to support intervention description and replication (Hoffmann et al 2014)

Summary

Introduction

As methodologies for synthesizing published health research mature (Moher 2009), reporting standards have been developed to allow for critical assessment of methodological quality, interpretation of findings, and comparison of findings across studies. Some currently used reporting standards include the CONSORT (Moher et al 2012) for randomized controlled trials, the TIDieR (Hoffmann et al 2014) for a broad range of interventions, and, in genetics, the STREGA (Little et al 2009) for genetic association studies. They may be intended as guides for authors only, or they may be required by journals to accompany submissions Standards like these stand to bring clarity and improvement to the reporting of genetic counseling intervention studies. The TIDieR standards were developed to fill this gap, and are generally applicable to all intervention studies

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