A Survey on the Access, Acceptability and Implementation of Dyslipidemia Guidelines among Physicians in Malang, Indonesia

Abstract

Objective. The implementation of guidelines in clinical practice is still facing a lot of obstacles. Although clinical recommendations of dyslipidemia are extant, little is known about how community physicians view guidelines and their implementation. The objective of this study is to assess the acceptance of guideline content and perceived implementation of dyslipidemia guidelines among physicians in Malang, Indonesia.

Methodology. Semi-structured validated questionnaires were given to 67 random physicians consisting of general practitioners (GP), internal medicine residents and internists. The questionnaire consisted of 19 questions evaluating four parts: information about access to dyslipidemia training, dyslipidemia guideline-perceived knowledge, level of understanding of dyslipidemia guidelines and application rate of guideline adopted. Evaluation results were scored ordinally and divided into 3 levels; less, enough and good for each part of the questionnaire.

Results. 89.2% of samples in the GP group lacked information about dyslipidemia training. The resident group had participated and were involved in dyslipidemia management training (98.3%), followed by the internist group (95.2%). In the GP group, 89.2% never or had less participation in dyslipidemia management training. The GP group (76.2%) also had had poor knowledge in understanding lipid guidelines, in which the least knowledge is known about targets of treatment, non-drug treatment and risk factors. Also, 40.3% of the GP group is still not capable of adopting dyslipidemia guidelines in daily practice. A major barrier was lack of understanding of guidelines (76.3%), followed by failure of adherence to the therapy of patients (12.1%). In the resident group, a major obstacle in the application of the guidelines is education level of the patient (45.5%). In all groups, HMG-CoA Reductase inhibitors are the most commonly used lipid-lowering drugs for treatment of dyslipidemia (98.1% in GP group, 96.3% in resident group, and 97.3% in internist group).

Conclusions. GPs, as physicians in primary health care system, had poor information and participation in dyslipidemia training, and poor knowledge of dyslipidemia guidelines (AACE, AHA, CCS), as well as understanding and application of the dyslipidemia guidelines (ATP III, PERKENI) to the population, whereas residents and internists had better perception and application of dyslipidemia guidelines.