Executive Summary
University of the Philippines Manila – National Institutes of Health – Institute of Clinical Epidemiology
This clinical practice guideline is a systematic synthesis of evidence to address clinical
questions on function-based rehabilitation in the primary care setting. It provides
thirteen (13) weak recommendations and one (1) strong recommendation on ten (10)
prioritized questions, based on very low to moderate evidence.
Recommendations are based on the appraisal of the best available evidence on each
of the identified clinical questions. This CPG is intended to be used by medical
professionals (general practitioners, pediatricians, family medicine specialists, and
rehabilitation medicine specialists), allied health workers (nurse, physical therapist,
occupational therapist, and speech language therapist), and community workers
(disability affairs officer, barangay health worker, and special education teachers).
The guideline development process followed the Philippine Department of Health
Technical Manual on Clinical Practice Guideline Development and the Grading of
Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) Approach
including GRADE Adolopment, a systematic process of adapting evidence
summaries, and the GRADE Evidence to Decision (EtD) framework. It included: (1)
identification of critical questions and critical outcomes, (2) retrieval of current
evidence, (3) assessment and synthesis of the evidence base for the critical questions,
(4) formulation of draft recommendations, (5) convening of a multi-sectoral stakeholder
panel to discuss values and preferences and assess the strength of the
recommendations, and (6) planning for dissemination, implementation, impact
evaluation and updating.
The recommendations in this CPG shall hold and will be updated after five years or
when new evidence arises.