[Decision-making about gout by physicians of China and influencing factors thereof].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the decision-making about gout by physicians of China and influencing factors thereof.


METHODS
A questionnaire survey, including 13 multiple choice questions, was divided into 2 stages. The first/stage questionnaire survey was conducted among 121 physicians of the departments of internal medicine and rheumatology respectively during the grand ward rounds, and the second-stage questionnaire survey was conducted among 75 physicians attending a national continuous medical education (CME) workshop of rheumatology. The data thus collected were pooled and analyzed by logistic regression models.


RESULTS
62 effective questionnaires were collected in the first/stage survey, and 38 effective questionnaires were collected in the second-stage survey, both with a missing rate < 10%. 78.3% of the respondents considered aspiration of the joint fluid as critical for the definitive diagnosis of gout, but only 2.4% of the respondents did so frequently. When treating acute gout in otherwise healthy patients, 69.2% of the respondents preferred oral colchicine, and while treating the patients with renal dysfunction, 41.7% of the respondents used corticosteroids or corticotrophin as the first choice. For long-term uric acid-lowering therapy, 99 of them (82.5%) described a variety of incorrect indications, 107 of them (89.2%) initiated the treatment too early (< or = 2 weeks after the remission), and 92 of them (76.7%) failed to sustain the treatment for at least 5 years. Only 17 physicians (14.2%) used prophylaxis while initiating the uric acid-lowering treatment and only 7 of them (5.8%) selected a prophylaxis time of 7 approximately 12 months. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that only CMD on gout was associated with correct diagnosis strategy (OR 7.1, 95% CI 2.1 approximately 23.7).


CONCLUSIONS
The management of gout by the physicians in China is often not consistent with that generally accepted internationally. High quality CME may improve the decision-making ability of physicians.
Fang
Wei-gang
WG
Department of General Internal Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China.
Zeng
Xue-jun
XJ
Li
Meng-tao
MT
Chen
Lan X
LX
Schumacher
H Ralph
HR
Zhang
Feng-chun
FC
D003657:Decision Making; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D006073:Gout / Q000188:drug therapy; D006074:Gout Suppressants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D006074:Gout Suppressants