EDUCATING PHYSICIANS ABOUT WOMENS HEALTH

OBJECTIVE To identify which women's health issues are taught in the 2- year core curriculum of Canadian family medicine residency programs an d whether educators think their current teaching of women's health is adequate. DESIGN Mailed survey using a questionnaire. PARTICIPANTS All program and unit directors of the 16 Canadian family medicine residen cy training programs were surveyed. Replies were received from 63% (10 of 16) of program directors and 79% (55 of 70) of unit directors. MAI N OUTCOME MEASURES Percentage of programs teaching specific women's he alth topics from a list of 21 possible topics; percentage offering edu cational opportunities with sexual assault teams and women's shelters; participants' assessment of the adequacy of current teaching in each training program; plans to increase women's health education. RESULTS Topics such as violence against women and medical conditions more comm on among women were taught in more than 80% of programs, but poverty a nd the health care concerns of Native and immigrant women were include d in fewer than 40% of programs. Half of the program directors indicat ed that residents were given educational opportunities with sexual ass ault teams or women's shelters. Unit directors gave a lower estimate. Most (90%) program directors thought their current teaching of women's health issues was inadequate and had plans to increase it, as did 64% of unit directors. CONCLUSION Violence against women and the traditio nal medical topics of osteoporosis, weight disorders, and reproductive and breast cancer are frequently taught in family medicine training p rograms. However, the social and cultural aspects of health are addres sed less often. It is encouraging that many family medicine programs p lan to increase their teaching of women's health.