Perception towards asthma clinical practice guidelines and appropriateness of prescribing practices--a comparison between government and private doctors.
A self-answered, anonymously completed, nationwide questionnaire survey was conducted between June 2002 and May 2003 among Malaysian doctors through post and at medical meetings. Findings based on 116 government and 110 private doctors who satisfactorily completed the forms (effective respondent rate: 30.1%) showed that more than 70% of government and private doctors claimed familiarity with asthma CPGs but proportionately more private doctors considered them "unworkable" and were reluctant to adopt them in their practice setting, quoting cost as the primary reason. Between those who frequently adopted the CPGs and those who did not, there was an equally high proportion of inappropriate prescribing. Despite the shortcomings of such a survey, our findings suggest that medicinal cost and practitioner's prescribing practices are important in the acceptance and execution of asthma CPGs recommendations.
Loh
Li-Cher
LC
Department of Medicine, Clinical School, International Medical University, Jalan Rasah, Seremban 70300, Negeri Sembilan.
Wong
Pei-Se
PS
D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000592:standards*; D033161:Government Regulation; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards*; D017149:Private Sector; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires