Lack of health care professional’s awareness for management of celiac disease may contribute to the under diagnosis of celiac disease

AIM: We assessed the knowledge of physicians regarding diagnosis and treatment of celiac disease (CD). BACKGROUND: Specialists as the main therapist group of CD patients may play crucial role in the diagnosis and treatment of CD. Therefore, training and ensuring their capabilities is important. METHODS: The population was specialists including Gastroenterologist, GI fellow, consultants, residents and general practitioners graduated in Medical Sciences Universities in Iran. The examination was the experts made and aimed to assess the educational needs of physicians and explore their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of CD with the key feature approach. Data was collected using a questionnaire that its validity and reliability was confirmed by experts (r = 91.6%). The total score was 150 with the classification of participants to the following categories: good (112- 150), intermediate (39-112) and weak ( ≤38). RESULTS: Out of 300 participants, 197 questionnaires were returned (Response rate = 66%). The mean age of the participants was 42.67 years (SD = 7.9 years) with majority were male (63.6%). Average score of participates who had less than three year’s experience was significantly higher than others (P≤0.05). Only 12.1% and 9.8% of specialists have got the excellent score for diagnosis and treatment, respectively. CONCLUSION: It may conclude that specialists have had performance gap and around 90% needed training based on the principles of instructional design in order to improve their knowledge and skills to do and practice their assigned tasks. Therefore, development of training packages according to the principles of instructional design is suggested.