title: Discrepancies between primary physician practice and treatment guidelines for Helicobacter pylori infection in Korea.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Seoul National University Boramae Hospital, Korea.
authors.forename: Byeong Gwan
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ji Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ji Bong
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Young Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Kook Lae
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Young Soo
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jin Huk
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Jin Uk
authors.initials: JU
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Na Young
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Dong Ho
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hyun Chae
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: In Sung
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori; D006801:Humans; D010821:Physicians, Family; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic