Attitudes of Korean clinicians to postmenopausal hormone therapy after the Women's Health Initiative study.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the attitudes of Korean physicians toward hormone therapy (HT) after publication of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study.


METHODS
Self-administered questionnaires, consisting of 22 items, were sent by mail to the members of the Korean Society of Menopause.


RESULTS
More than 95% of Korean physicians were aware of the WHI study. The HT prescription rate decreased by 16% after publication of the WHI report; approximately half of the physicians who continued prescribing HT changed their prescriptions. The largest decreases occurred in regimens using conjugated equine estrogens and medroxyprogesterone acetate, for which prescriptions of sequential and continuous-combined regimens decreased by 20.7% and 22.7%, respectively. In contrast, the prescription rate for tibolone increased by 3.6%. Approximately 30% of physicians changed from standard to low doses, and 67.8% shortened the duration of HT. After publication of the WHI report, the main reasons for not prescribing or discontinuing HT were patient refusal and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, rather than breast cancer risk. After publication of the WHI report, the number of physicians who prescribed alternative or complementary medicines increased, the rate of HT prescription for the prevention of osteoporosis decreased, and the number of postmenopausal outpatients decreased.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite the results of the WHI report, most Korean physicians who participated in this study continued prescribing HT; however, approximately half of those who continued prescribing HT changed their prescriptions. The greatest change occurred in regimens using conjugated equine estrogens and medroxyprogesterone acetate.
Kang
Byung M
BM
College of Medicine, University of Ulsan, Seoul, Korea. bmkang@amc.seoul.kr
Kim
Mee-Ran
MR
Park
Hyoung M
HM
Yoon
Byung K
BK
Lee
Byung S
BS
Chung
Hye W
HW
Cho
Soo H
SH
Choi
Hoon
H
Kim
Jung G
JG
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D004966:Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D017258:Medroxyprogesterone Acetate / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008875:Middle Aged; D009652:Norpregnenes / Q000008:administration & dosage; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000517:prevention & control; D017698:Postmenopause; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000639:trends*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016387:Women's Health
D004966:Estrogens, Conjugated (USP); D009652:Norpregnenes; D017258:Medroxyprogesterone Acetate; C027385:tibolone