Physicians’ Perceptions and Adherence to Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension: A National, Multicentre, Prospective Study
Table 4
Physicians’ awareness of and perception about the published guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension by specialty.
Total
Cardiologists
Internists
GPs
value
Self-reported awareness
65 (95.6%)
35 (97.2%)
13 (100.0%)
17 (89.5%)
0.28†
Self-reported adherence
62 (92.5%)
34 (94.4%)
13 (100.0%)
15 (83.3%)
0.18†
Physicians’ opinion about guidelines
Useful in practice
49 (72.1%)
27 (75.0%)
9 (69.2%)
13 (68.4%)
0.85
Helpful in effective management
43 (63.2%)
24 (66.7%)
7 (53.8%)
12 (63.2%)
0.71
Not useful
3 (4.4%)
3 (8.3%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
0.25
Difficult to apply
5 (7.4%)
0 (0.0%)
3 (23.1%)
2 (10.5%)
0.01†
Difficult to remember
3 (4.4%)
3 (8.3%)
0 (0.0%)
0 (0.0%)
0.42†
Industrial product
5 (7.4%)
1 (2.8%)
2 (15.4%)
2 (10.5%)
0.20†
Doctor knows always best
8 (11.8%)
3 (8.3%)
1 (7.7%)
4 (21.1%)
0.42†
Positive general attitude*
51 (75.0%)
30 (83.3%)
9 (69.2%)
12 (63.2%)
0.23
Fisher’s exact test, in all other cases, was applied.
*A positive attitude was defined as disagreement with all of the following statements: (a) guidelines are difficult to apply, (b) guidelines are difficult to remember, (c) they are an industrial product, and (d) doctor knows best.
