The GRADE process starts with identifying, wording and prioritizing PICO (Population-Intervention-Comparator-Outcome) questions and subsequently, the systematic literature search to identify studies relevant to these questions. For GRADE however, the outcomes reported in the studies are of central importance. For each PICO question, outcomes are listed a priori, and categorized as either important or critical outcomes. The quality of evidence is then determined for each of these outcomes, while non-important outcomes, even if reported in relevant studies, are not further considered in this analysis.
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