Cargando…

Is it really always only the others who are to blame? GP’s view on medical overuse. A questionnaire study

BACKGROUND: Medical overuse is a common problem in health care. Preventing unnecessary medicine is one of the main tasks of General Practice, so called quaternary prevention. We aimed to capture the current opinion of German General Practitioners (GPs) to medical overuse. METHODS: A quantitative onl...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pausch, Maximilian, Schedlbauer, Angela, Weiss, Maren, Kuehlein, Thomas, Hueber, Susann
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6961900/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31940325
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227457
_version_ 1783488067360784384
author Pausch, Maximilian
Schedlbauer, Angela
Weiss, Maren
Kuehlein, Thomas
Hueber, Susann
author_facet Pausch, Maximilian
Schedlbauer, Angela
Weiss, Maren
Kuehlein, Thomas
Hueber, Susann
author_sort Pausch, Maximilian
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Medical overuse is a common problem in health care. Preventing unnecessary medicine is one of the main tasks of General Practice, so called quaternary prevention. We aimed to capture the current opinion of German General Practitioners (GPs) to medical overuse. METHODS: A quantitative online study was conducted. The questionnaire was developed based on a qualitative study and literature search. GPs were asked to estimate prevalence of medical overuse as well as to evaluate drivers and solutions of medical overuse. GPs in Bavaria were recruited via email (750 addresses). A descriptive data analysis was performed. Additionally the association between doctors’ attitudes and (1) demographic variables and (2) interest in campaigns against medical overuse was assessed. RESULTS: Response rate was 18%. The mean age was 54 years, 79% were male and 68% have worked as GP longer than 15 years. Around 38% of medical services were considered as medical overuse and nearly half of the GPs (47%) judged medical overuse to be the more important problem than medical underuse. Main drivers were seen in “patients´ expectations” (76%), “lack of a primary care system” (61%) and “defensive medicine” (53%), whereas “disregard of evidence/guidelines” (15%) and “economic pressure on the side of the doctor” (13%) were not weighted as important causes. Demographic variables did not have an important impact on GPs´ response pattern. GPs interested in campaigns like “Choosing Wisely” showed a higher awareness for medical overuse, although these campaigns were only known by 50% of the respondents. DISCUSSION: Medical overuse is an important issue for GPs. Main drivers were searched and found outside their own sphere of responsibility. Campaigns as “Choosing Wisely” seem to have a positive effect on GPs attitude, but knowledge is still limited.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6961900
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-69619002020-01-26 Is it really always only the others who are to blame? GP’s view on medical overuse. A questionnaire study Pausch, Maximilian Schedlbauer, Angela Weiss, Maren Kuehlein, Thomas Hueber, Susann PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Medical overuse is a common problem in health care. Preventing unnecessary medicine is one of the main tasks of General Practice, so called quaternary prevention. We aimed to capture the current opinion of German General Practitioners (GPs) to medical overuse. METHODS: A quantitative online study was conducted. The questionnaire was developed based on a qualitative study and literature search. GPs were asked to estimate prevalence of medical overuse as well as to evaluate drivers and solutions of medical overuse. GPs in Bavaria were recruited via email (750 addresses). A descriptive data analysis was performed. Additionally the association between doctors’ attitudes and (1) demographic variables and (2) interest in campaigns against medical overuse was assessed. RESULTS: Response rate was 18%. The mean age was 54 years, 79% were male and 68% have worked as GP longer than 15 years. Around 38% of medical services were considered as medical overuse and nearly half of the GPs (47%) judged medical overuse to be the more important problem than medical underuse. Main drivers were seen in “patients´ expectations” (76%), “lack of a primary care system” (61%) and “defensive medicine” (53%), whereas “disregard of evidence/guidelines” (15%) and “economic pressure on the side of the doctor” (13%) were not weighted as important causes. Demographic variables did not have an important impact on GPs´ response pattern. GPs interested in campaigns like “Choosing Wisely” showed a higher awareness for medical overuse, although these campaigns were only known by 50% of the respondents. DISCUSSION: Medical overuse is an important issue for GPs. Main drivers were searched and found outside their own sphere of responsibility. Campaigns as “Choosing Wisely” seem to have a positive effect on GPs attitude, but knowledge is still limited. Public Library of Science 2020-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC6961900/ /pubmed/31940325 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227457 Text en © 2020 Pausch et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pausch, Maximilian
Schedlbauer, Angela
Weiss, Maren
Kuehlein, Thomas
Hueber, Susann
Is it really always only the others who are to blame? GP’s view on medical overuse. A questionnaire study
title Is it really always only the others who are to blame? GP’s view on medical overuse. A questionnaire study
title_full Is it really always only the others who are to blame? GP’s view on medical overuse. A questionnaire study
title_fullStr Is it really always only the others who are to blame? GP’s view on medical overuse. A questionnaire study
title_full_unstemmed Is it really always only the others who are to blame? GP’s view on medical overuse. A questionnaire study
title_short Is it really always only the others who are to blame? GP’s view on medical overuse. A questionnaire study
title_sort is it really always only the others who are to blame? gp’s view on medical overuse. a questionnaire study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6961900/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31940325
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227457
work_keys_str_mv AT pauschmaximilian isitreallyalwaysonlytheotherswhoaretoblamegpsviewonmedicaloveruseaquestionnairestudy
AT schedlbauerangela isitreallyalwaysonlytheotherswhoaretoblamegpsviewonmedicaloveruseaquestionnairestudy
AT weissmaren isitreallyalwaysonlytheotherswhoaretoblamegpsviewonmedicaloveruseaquestionnairestudy
AT kuehleinthomas isitreallyalwaysonlytheotherswhoaretoblamegpsviewonmedicaloveruseaquestionnairestudy
AT huebersusann isitreallyalwaysonlytheotherswhoaretoblamegpsviewonmedicaloveruseaquestionnairestudy