title: Applicability of the theory of planned behavior in explaining the general practitioners eLearning use in continuing medical education.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  General practitioners (GP) update their knowledge and skills by participating in continuing medical education (CME) programs either in a traditional or an e-Learning format. GPs' beliefs about electronic format of CME have been studied but without an explicit theoretical framework which makes the findings difficult to interpret. In other health disciplines, researchers used theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict user's behavior.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, an instrument was developed to investigate GPs' intention to use e-Learning in CME based on TPB. The goodness of fit of TPB was measured using confirmatory factor analysis and the relationship between latent variables was assessed using structural equation modeling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 148 GPs participated in the study. Most of the items in the questionnaire related well to the TPB theoretical constructs, and the model had good fitness. The perceived behavioral control and attitudinal constructs were included, and the subjective norms construct was excluded from the structural model. The developed questionnaire could explain 66 % of the GPs' intention variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The TPB could be used as a model to construct instruments that investigate GPs' intention to participate in e-Learning programs in CME. The findings from the study will encourage CME managers and researchers to explore the developed instrument as a mean to explain and improve the GPs' intentions to use eLearning in CME.
authors.affiliation: Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, 17177, Stockholm, Sweden. arash.hadadgar@ki.se.|Medical education research center, Isfahan University of medical sciences, Hezar Jerib Av, Isfahan, Iran. arash.hadadgar@ki.se.
authors.forename: Arash
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2767-4481
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hadadgar
authors.affiliation: Medical education department, Isfahan University of medical sciences, Hezar Jerib Av, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Tahereh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Changiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Science and Education, Karolinska Institutet, Södersjukhuset, 11883, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Italo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Masiello
authors.affiliation: Medical education research center, Isfahan University of medical sciences, Hezar Jerib Av, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dehghani
authors.affiliation: Continuing medical education office, Isfahan University of medical sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Nahidossadat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mirshahzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, 17177, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Nabil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zary
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D058006:General Practice / Q000193:education*; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007858:Learning; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Continuing medical education; General practitioner; Theory of planned behavior; e-learning