Final published version
Licence: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
General practitioners' awareness of the recommendations for faecal immunochemical tests (FITs) for suspected lower gastrointestinal cancers : a national survey. / Von Wagner, Christian; Stoffel, Sandro Tiziano; Freeman, Madeline et al.
In: BMJ Open, Vol. 9, No. 4, e025737, 11.04.2019.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - General practitioners' awareness of the recommendations for faecal immunochemical tests (FITs) for suspected lower gastrointestinal cancers
T2 - a national survey
AU - Von Wagner, Christian
AU - Stoffel, Sandro Tiziano
AU - Freeman, Madeline
AU - Laszlo, Helga E
AU - Nicholson, Brian D
AU - Sheringham, Jessica
AU - Szinay, Dorothy
AU - Hirst, Yasemin
N1 - © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2019/4/11
Y1 - 2019/4/11
N2 - OBJECTIVES: In July 2017, UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a diagnostic guidance (DG30) recommending the use of faecal immunochemical tests (FITs) for symptomatic patients who do not meet the urgent referral pathway for suspected colorectal cancer (CRC). We assessed general practitioners' (GP) awareness of DG30 in primary care 6 months after its publication.DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional online survey of GPs hosted by an English panel of Primary health care professionals.PARTICIPANTS: In December 2017, 1024 GPs registered on an online panel (M3) based in England took part in an online survey.OUTCOMES AND VARIABLES: We investigated a number of factors including previous experience of using FIT and guaiac faecal occult blood tests (FOBTs), the number of urgent referrals for CRC that GPs have made in the last year and their sociodemographic and professional characteristics that could be associated with their self-reported awareness of the FIT diagnostic guidance.RESULTS: Of the 1024 GPs who completed the survey, 432 (42.2%) were aware of the current recommendation but only 102 (10%) had used it to guide their referrals. Awareness was lowest in North West England compared with London (30.5% vs 44.9%; adjusted OR: 0.55, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.92). Awareness of the FIT guidance was positively associated with test usage after the NICE update (adjusted OR: 13.00, 95% CI 6.87 to 24.61) and having specialist training (adjusted OR: 1.48, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.08). The number of urgent referrals, the previous use of FOBt, GPs' age and gender, work experience and practice size (both in terms of the number of GPs or patients at the practice) were not associated with awareness.CONCLUSIONS: Less than half of GPs in this survey recognised the current guidance on the use of FIT. Self-reported awareness was not systematically related to demographic of professional characteristics.
AB - OBJECTIVES: In July 2017, UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a diagnostic guidance (DG30) recommending the use of faecal immunochemical tests (FITs) for symptomatic patients who do not meet the urgent referral pathway for suspected colorectal cancer (CRC). We assessed general practitioners' (GP) awareness of DG30 in primary care 6 months after its publication.DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional online survey of GPs hosted by an English panel of Primary health care professionals.PARTICIPANTS: In December 2017, 1024 GPs registered on an online panel (M3) based in England took part in an online survey.OUTCOMES AND VARIABLES: We investigated a number of factors including previous experience of using FIT and guaiac faecal occult blood tests (FOBTs), the number of urgent referrals for CRC that GPs have made in the last year and their sociodemographic and professional characteristics that could be associated with their self-reported awareness of the FIT diagnostic guidance.RESULTS: Of the 1024 GPs who completed the survey, 432 (42.2%) were aware of the current recommendation but only 102 (10%) had used it to guide their referrals. Awareness was lowest in North West England compared with London (30.5% vs 44.9%; adjusted OR: 0.55, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.92). Awareness of the FIT guidance was positively associated with test usage after the NICE update (adjusted OR: 13.00, 95% CI 6.87 to 24.61) and having specialist training (adjusted OR: 1.48, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.08). The number of urgent referrals, the previous use of FOBt, GPs' age and gender, work experience and practice size (both in terms of the number of GPs or patients at the practice) were not associated with awareness.CONCLUSIONS: Less than half of GPs in this survey recognised the current guidance on the use of FIT. Self-reported awareness was not systematically related to demographic of professional characteristics.
KW - colorectal
KW - fecal immunochemical test
KW - primary care
KW - symptomatic
KW - two week wait
U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025737
DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025737
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 30975679
VL - 9
JO - BMJ Open
JF - BMJ Open
SN - 2044-6055
IS - 4
M1 - e025737
ER -