Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21311711›Full record

ArticleDeutsches Arzteblatt international2011

Physicians' knowledge of and compliance with guidelines: an exploratory study in cardiovascular diseases.

Ute Karbach, Ingrid Schubert, Jens Hagemeister, Nicole Ernstmann, Holger Pfaff, Hans-Wilhelm Höpp

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Article in Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
36citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

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  13. Screening and management of osteoporosis: a survey of knowledge, attitude, and practice among healthcare professionals in Egypt-a study by the Egyptian Academy of Bone Health.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2024
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  14. 'Primary health care research & development · 2023
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Ute KarbachIMVR – Institut für Medizinsoziologie, Versorgungsforschung und Rehabilitationswissenschaft der Humanwissenschaftlichen, Fakultät und der Medizinischen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany. Ute.Karbach@uk-koeln.de
Ingrid Schubert
Jens Hagemeister
Nicole Ernstmann
Holger Pfaff
Hans-Wilhelm Höpp

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundGuidelines are one of the means by which health care organizations try to improve health care and lower its cost. Studies have shown, however, that guidelines are still not being adequately implemented. In this exploratory study, we examine the link between physicians' knowledge of and compliance with guidelines: specifically, guidelines for the treatment of three cardiovascular diseases (arterial hypertension, heart failure and chronic coronary heart disease [CHD]) in primary care.

methodsWe assessed primary care physicians' knowledge of the guidelines with a representative postal survey, using a questionnaire about the treatment of cardiovascular diseases (2500 questionnaires sent). We assessed the responding physicians' compliance with the guidelines by analyzing patient data from a sample of 30 of them for various indicators of compliance. Of these 30 physicians, 15 met our operational criteria for adequate knowledge of the guidelines, and 15 did not.

results437 (40%) of the physicians knew the guidelines adequately. Physicians answered questions about chronic CHD in accordance with the guidelines more often than they did questions about arterial hypertension (74% versus 11%). Our exploratory analysis of guideline compliance revealed that physicians who knew the guidelines adequately performed no differently than physicians who did not with respect to 12 of the 16 compliance indicators. As for the remaining 4 compliance indicators, it turned out, surprisingly, that physicians who did not know the guidelines adequately performed significantly better than those who did.

conclusionThese preliminary findings imply that physicians' knowledge of guidelines does not in itself lead to better guideline implementation. Further studies are needed to address this important issue.

Indexed as

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, PracticePractice Guidelines as TopicCardiovascular DiseasesDelivery of Health CareGermanyGuideline AdherenceHumansPractice Patterns, Physicians'

Identifiers

PMID21311711
PMCPMC3036980

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.