Discrepancies between primary physician practice and treatment guidelines for Helicobacter pylori infection in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the attitude of primary care physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection.


METHODS
Primary care physicians in the Seoul metropolitan area answered self-administered questionnaire from January to March 2003.


RESULTS
One hundred and eight doctors responded to the questionnaire. The most frequent reasons for testing H. pylori infection were gastric and duodenal ulcers (93.5% and 88.9%, respectively). For patients with H. pylori positive dyspepsia, 28.7% of doctors always tried to eradicate the worm and 34.4% treated selectively. A large proportion (28.7%) of primary care physicians treated H. pylori on a patient's request basis. Only 9.3% of primary care physicians always conducted follow-up testing after treating H. pylori infection. When H. pylori was not cleared by the first treatment, 40.7% of doctors reused the same regimen, 16.7% changed to another triple regimen and 25% to a quadruple regimen.


CONCLUSIONS
It has been well documented that the issuance of guidelines alone has little impact on practice. Communication between primary care physicians and gastroenterologists in the form of continuous medical education is required.
Kim
Byeong Gwan
BG
Seoul National University Boramae Hospital, Korea.
Kim
Ji Won
JW
Jeong
Ji Bong
JB
Jung
Young Jin
YJ
Lee
Kook Lae
KL
Park
Young Soo
YS
Hwang
Jin Huk
JH
Kim
Jin Uk
JU
Kim
Na Young
NY
Lee
Dong Ho
DH
Jung
Hyun Chae
HC
Song
In Sung
IS
D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori; D006801:Humans; D010821:Physicians, Family; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic