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What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in Australia? The views of general practitioners

BACKGROUND: Australia is considering implementing a chlamydia screening program in general practice. The views of general practitioners (GPs) are necessary to inform the design of the program. This paper aimed to investigate Australian GPs' views on how chlamydia screening could work in the Aus...

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Autores principales: Hocking, Jane S, Parker, Rhian M, Pavlin, Natasha, Fairley, Christopher K, Gunn, Jane M
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2629772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19115998
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-8-425
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author Hocking, Jane S
Parker, Rhian M
Pavlin, Natasha
Fairley, Christopher K
Gunn, Jane M
author_facet Hocking, Jane S
Parker, Rhian M
Pavlin, Natasha
Fairley, Christopher K
Gunn, Jane M
author_sort Hocking, Jane S
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Australia is considering implementing a chlamydia screening program in general practice. The views of general practitioners (GPs) are necessary to inform the design of the program. This paper aimed to investigate Australian GPs' views on how chlamydia screening could work in the Australian context. METHODS: This project used both qualitative interviews and a quantitative questionnaire. GPs were randomly selected from a national database of medical practitioners for both the qualitative and quantitative components. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with GPs and a thematic analysis conducted. The results of the interviews were used to design a quantitative postal questionnaire for completion by a larger sample of GPs. Up to three reminders were sent to non-responders. RESULTS: Twenty one GPs completed an interview and 255 completed the postal questionnaire. The results of the postal survey were in strong concordance with those of the interview. GPs identified a number of barriers to increased screening including lack of time, knowledge of GPs and the public about chlamydia, patient embarrassment and support for partner notification. GPs felt strongly that screening would be easier if there was a national program and if the public and GPs had a greater knowledge about chlamydia. Incentive payments and mechanisms for recall and reminders would facilitate screening. Greater support for contact tracing would be important if screening is to increase. CONCLUSION: Chlamydia screening in general practice is acceptable to Australian GPs. If screening is to succeed, policy makers must consider the facilitators identified by GPs.
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spelling pubmed-26297722009-01-23 What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in Australia? The views of general practitioners Hocking, Jane S Parker, Rhian M Pavlin, Natasha Fairley, Christopher K Gunn, Jane M BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Australia is considering implementing a chlamydia screening program in general practice. The views of general practitioners (GPs) are necessary to inform the design of the program. This paper aimed to investigate Australian GPs' views on how chlamydia screening could work in the Australian context. METHODS: This project used both qualitative interviews and a quantitative questionnaire. GPs were randomly selected from a national database of medical practitioners for both the qualitative and quantitative components. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with GPs and a thematic analysis conducted. The results of the interviews were used to design a quantitative postal questionnaire for completion by a larger sample of GPs. Up to three reminders were sent to non-responders. RESULTS: Twenty one GPs completed an interview and 255 completed the postal questionnaire. The results of the postal survey were in strong concordance with those of the interview. GPs identified a number of barriers to increased screening including lack of time, knowledge of GPs and the public about chlamydia, patient embarrassment and support for partner notification. GPs felt strongly that screening would be easier if there was a national program and if the public and GPs had a greater knowledge about chlamydia. Incentive payments and mechanisms for recall and reminders would facilitate screening. Greater support for contact tracing would be important if screening is to increase. CONCLUSION: Chlamydia screening in general practice is acceptable to Australian GPs. If screening is to succeed, policy makers must consider the facilitators identified by GPs. BioMed Central 2008-12-30 /pmc/articles/PMC2629772/ /pubmed/19115998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-8-425 Text en Copyright © 2008 Hocking et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hocking, Jane S
Parker, Rhian M
Pavlin, Natasha
Fairley, Christopher K
Gunn, Jane M
What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in Australia? The views of general practitioners
title What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in Australia? The views of general practitioners
title_full What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in Australia? The views of general practitioners
title_fullStr What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in Australia? The views of general practitioners
title_full_unstemmed What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in Australia? The views of general practitioners
title_short What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in Australia? The views of general practitioners
title_sort what needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in general practice in australia? the views of general practitioners
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2629772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19115998
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-8-425
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