General Practitioner's Knowledge and Clinical Practice in Management of People with Type 2 Diabetes in Iran; The Impact of Continuous Medical Education Programs

To obtain information related to the knowledge and clinical practice of general practitioners (GPs) in management of people with type 2 diabetes, and to explore the impact of formal continuous medical education (CME) programs. A total of 1104 GPs participated in a cross sectional survey related to diabetes management considering ADA/EASD consensus 2011 focused on demographic and background characteristics, diabetes related knowledge, and patient care. Fisher’s Exact and Chi-square tests were used in the analysis of contingency tables. The majority of the participants (83.9%) worked in large cities and 39.8% had taken part in CME programs in diabetes management. Overall, 52% of the GPs knew the treatment goal for HbA1c. The rate was slightly higher for those taken part in CME (P = 0.003). Considering patient care, slightly more than half of the participants answered correctly to the questions on duration and distribution of physical activity, with no difference by taking part in CME programs. On average, 41.5% of the physicians selected metformin as the first OGLD for treatment of type 2 diabetes, and only 27.9% stated that they add basal insulin to OGLD if treatment failed. The results of this study provide the evidence that the knowledge and clinical practice of Iranian GPs in management of type 2 diabetes were not satisfactory. Furthermore, traditional CME programs in diabetes management were not effective in changing the GPs’ clinical practice. Consequently, designing and implementing more effective strategies are necessary for improving patient health related outcomes.