The short-term impact of a continuing medical education program on providers' attitudes toward treating diabetes

OBJECTIVE - The objective of this study was to evaluate the short-term impa ct of a 7-h type 2 diabetes continuing medical education (CME) program. Out comes included a measure of health care providers' diabetes knowledge and t he Diabetes Attitude Scale (DAS), a validated measure of attitudes toward d iabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - A CME program on type 2 diabetes was presente d by an expert panel in Chicago during November 1998. A before-after trial with pre-and postintervention measurements of diabetes knowledge and attitu des reward diabetes was administered as part of the program. A convenience sample of the 129 health care providers in attendance resulted in 91 (71%) completed pre- and postintervention surveys. RESULTS - Within-subjects analysis revealed increases in knowledge and more favorable attitudes toward diabetes after the program. Between-subjects an alysis revealed that attitude changes differed for physicians as compared w ith allied health care providers. CONCLUSIONS - A CME program was associated with an increase in knowledge of diabetes and more favorable attitudes reward diabetes as measured by the D AS. The DAS changes were subtly different for the physician group as compar ed with the allied health care provider group. These results suggest that t he DAS can be a useful instrument for measuring the short-term impact of ed ucational interventions.