Dr. Gifford et al., Improving adherence to dementia guidelines through education and opinion leaders - A randomized, controlled trial, ANN INT MED, 131(4), 1999, pp. 237
Citations number
45
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine","Medical Research General Topics
Background: Educational methods that encourage physicians to adopt practice
guidelines are needed.
Objective: To evaluate an educational strategy to increase neurologists' ad
herence to specialty society-endorsed practice recommendations.
Design: Randomized, controlled trial.
Setting: Six urban regions in New York State.
Participants: 417 neurologists.
Intervention: The educational strategy promoted six recommendations for eva
luation and management of dementia. It included a mailed American Academy o
f Neurology continuing medical education course, practice-based tools, an i
nteractive evidence-based American Academy of Neurology-sponsored seminar l
ed by local opinion leaders, and follow-up mailings.
Measurements: Neurologists' adherence to guidelines was measured by using d
etailed clinical scenarios mailed to a baseline group 3 months before the i
ntervention and to intervention and control groups 6 months after the inter
vention. In one region, patients' medical records were reviewed to determin
e concordance between neurologists' scenario responses and their actual car
e.
Results: Compared with neurologists in the baseline and control groups, neu
rologists in the intervention group were more adherent to three of the six
recommendations: neuroimaging for patients with dementia only when certain
criteria are present (odds ratio, 4.1 [95% CI, 1.9 to 8.9]), referral of al
l patients with dementia and their families to the Alzheimer's Association
(odds ratio, 2.8 [CI, 1.7 to 4.8]), and encouragement of all patients and t
heir families to enroll in the Alzheimer's Association Safe Return Program
(odds ratio, 10.8 [CI, 3.5 to 33.2]). For the other three recommendations,
adherence did not differ between the intervention and the nonintervention g
roups. Agreement between scenario responses and actual care ranged from 27%
to 99% for the six recommendations and was 95% or more for three of the re
commendations.
Conclusion: A multifaceted educational program can improve physician adopti
on of practice guidelines.