Influence of physician factors on the effectiveness of a continuing medical education intervention.
OBJECTIVE
Continuing medical education (CME) is essential for improving the quality of care in primary health care settings. This study's objective was to determine how the characteristics of family physicians influenced the effectiveness of a multifaceted CME intervention to improve the management of acute respiratory infection (ARI) or type 2 diabetes (DM2).


METHODS
A secondary analysis was conducted based on data from 121 family physicians, who participated in the educational intervention study. The outcome variable was positive change in physician's performance for treatment of ARI or DM2. The exposure variable was multifaceted CME intervention. Independent variables were professional physicians and organizational characteristics. Analysis included log binomial regression modeling.


RESULTS
Factors influencing positive change included, for ARI, participation in the CME intervention and medical director interested in that condition and for DM2, participation in the CME intervention, medical director interested in DM2, and being a teacher.


CONCLUSIONS
Physicians' characteristics and organizational environment influence the effectiveness of educational intervention and are therefore relevant to the implementation of CME strategies.
Flores
Sergio
S
Epidemiology and Health Services Research Unit, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Mexican Institute of Social Security, IMSS, Mexico City, Mexico. sflores@cis.gob.mx
Reyes
Hortensia
H
Perez-Cuevas
Ricardo
R
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019090:Case Management; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000628:therapy; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D008486:Physician Executives; D010821:Physicians, Family; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000628:therapy; D013663:Teaching