Psychological determinants of the intention to educate patients about benzodiazepines.
OBJECTIVE
General practitioners and pharmacists do not properly educate their patients about the disadvantages of benzodiazepines. In order to increase and improve education, this study will investigate which psychological factors (i.e., beliefs, outcome expectation, social norm and self-efficacy) predict the intention to educate.


METHODS
A cross-sectional survey study was conducted in which 339 general practitioners and 149 pharmacists in the Netherlands completed a questionnaire.


RESULTS
The Results show that the above-mentioned factors play an important role in forming intentions to educate. However, differences exist between general practitioners and pharmacists.


CONCLUSIONS
General practitioners and pharmacists intend to educate in cases where they think that benzodiazepines have well-defined disadvantages, when the education they undertake leads to success, when they feel pressure to educate from their surroundings and when they are capable of educating. Implications for practice These findings contribute to a better understanding of patient education and are of great value in developing new interventions to improve education.
Ten Wolde
Geeske Brecht
GB
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands. tenwolde@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Dijkstra
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Van Empelen
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Knuistingh Neven
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Zitman
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D000328:Adult; D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000523:psychology; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives; D001569:Benzodiazepines