title: [General practitioners' understanding of unexplained abbreviations].
abstract: We studied whether 141 doctors in the primary health service understood 13 unexplained abbreviations used in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association. On average, 95% of the medical abbreviations and 42% of the administrative abbreviations were partly or completely understood (p much less than 0.001). The abbreviation JAMA was unknown to every third doctor, and SD to every fifth doctor. The use of abbreviations in medical literature should be limited, and abbreviations should not be allowed to become a hindrance to communication.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nylenna
mesh_terms: D000004:Abbreviations as Topic; D005194:Family Practice; D009664:Norway; D009626:Terminology as Topic
vernacular_title: Primaerlegers forståelse av uforklarte forkortelser.