Current practices, attitudes and barriers to paediatric lipid screening and management amongst Family Physicians and Paediatricians in British Columbia.

Objective: To determine current practices, attitudes and barriers to pediatric lipid screening and management amongst family physicians and paediatricians in British Columbia (BC). Design: Cross-sectional online survey. Setting: Urban, suburban, and remote locations across BC. Participants: Community-based or academic family physicians and paediatricians. Main outcome measures: Self-reported lipid screening practices in children and diagnosis and management of dyslipidemia. Secondary outcomes were self-reported attitudes and barriers to screening and treatment. Results: Most physicians are not screening their pediatric patients for dyslipidemias (85% of family physicians, 84% of paediatricians) and disagreed with screening children for elevated cholesterol both pre-puberty (67% of family physicians, 79% of paediatricians) and in adolescence (67% of family physicians and paediatricians). While 77% of paediatricians and 56% of family physicians agreed that statins are an appropriate treatment for children with Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), most respondents (89% of family physicians, 76% of paediatricians) reported they would not prescribe them. The most widely cited barrier to screening and management of paediatric dyslipidemias was a lack of Canadian guidelines (74% of family physicians, 53% of paediatricians). Conclusions: Despite the recent release of a clinical practice update by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Association, awareness of recommendations for the detection and management of pediatric dyslipidemias amongst family physicians and paediatricians is low, and practices remain at odds with these recommendations. Knowledge translation interventions are necessary to disseminate clinical practice recommendations to physicians and evoke practice change.