CLINICAL-PRACTICE GUIDELINES - NEW-TO-PRACTICE FAMILY PHYSICIANS ATTITUDES

OBJECTIVE To examine the attitudes toward clinical practice guidelines of a group of family physicians who had recently entered practice in Ontario, and to compare them with the attitudes of a group of internis ts from the United States. DESIGN Mailed questionnaire survey of all m embers of a defined cohort. SETTING Ontario family practices. PARTICIP ANTS Certificants of the College of Family Physicians of Canada who re ceived certification in 1989, 1990, and 1991 and who were practising i n Ontario. Of 564 cohort members, 395 (70%) responded. Men (184) and w omen (211) responded at the same rate. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Levels of agreement with 10 descriptive statements about practice guidelines an d analyses of variance of these responses for several physician charac teristics. RESULTS Of respondents in independent practice, 80% were in group practice. Women were more likely to have chosen group practice, in which they were more likely to use practice guidelines than men. G enerally favourable attitudes toward guidelines were observed. Physici an characteristics occasionally influenced agreement with the descript ors. The pattern of agreement was similar to that noted in the study o f American internists, but, in general, Ontario physicians were more s upportive. CONCLUSIONS This group of relatively new-to-practice Ontari o family physicians shows little resistance to guidelines and appears to read less threat of external control in them than does the US group .