Atherosclerosis knowledge of general practice residents: Diagnosis and management in primary care.

OBJECTIVES

Cardiovascular diseases represent the leading cause of death worldwide. In a previous survey, we have shown that the management of patients with atherosclerosis by general practitioners depends on the locations of the disease. The aim of this survey was to assess general practice residents' (GPR) knowledge on three clinical presentations which are ischemic stroke, coronary artery disease (CAD), and peripheral artery disease (PAD).

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Between May 2017 and September 2017, a national self-administered survey that we previously used to assess the GPs' knowledge was emailed to GPRs from French medicine faculties. The questionnaire was composed of three clinical cases dealing with transient ischemic attack (TIA), stable angina (SA) and intermittent claudication (IC). Each clinical case was explored by seven similar questions. The primary endpoint was the number of GPRs who correctly answered 5 of the 7 questions for each clinical case.

RESULTS

Five hundred and fifty-three GPRs (10%) answered the questionnaire entirely. There is a significant difference between TIA knowledge (19.9% of correct answers) which is greater than SA knowledge (0.9%) and IC knowledge (0.4%). The diagnosis was correctly done by 525 (94.9%) GPRs for TIA, 513 (92.8%) for SA, and 532 (96.2%) for IC. The main difficulties encountered by the GPRs concerned complementary investigations and treatment.

CONCLUSION

As for general practitioners, this study reveals a difference in GPRs' knowledge depending on the location of the atherosclerosis. Considering the results, the improvement of initial training and continuing medical education (CME) in general medicine would be desirable.