Exploring emergency physicians’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour towards Choosing Wisely in Taiwan

by Wang-Chuan Juang, Sonia Ming-Jiu Chiou, Hui-Ling Yang, Ying-Chun Li

Background

In 2012, the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation launched the Choosing Wisely campaign to reduce unnecessary care. However, it is unclear how much emergency physicians in Taiwan understand about Choosing Wisely. The purpose of this study was to explore the knowledge, attitude, and behaviour of emergency physicians in Taiwan regarding Choosing Wisely and its related factors; the intention was to identify the baseline knowledge on the basis of which to promote Choosing Wisely in Taiwan.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study including emergency physicians in Taiwan as research subjects who answered online questionnaires. A 42-item questionnaire was designed according to the Knowledge, Attitude, and Behaviour model (KAB). The questionnaire linkages were delivered to emergency physicians through social media (eg., Line, Facebook) and received assistance from different hospital directors. A total of 162 valid questionnaires were collected. Data analyses include t-test, analysis of variance, chi-square test, Pearson’s correlation, and multivariate linear regression model.

Results

The study determined that although only 38.9% of emergency physicians had heard of Choosing Wisely, the mean correct rate of knowledge score among emergency physicians was 70.1%. Attitude and the behaviour related to Choosing Wisely were positively associated, which means that the more positive the attitude towards Choosing Wisely is, the more positive the behaviour towards Choosing Wisely is. In multiple linear regression analyses, having served as a supervisor, belonging to divisions of health insurance service, and having heard of Choosing Wisely (P < 0.05) positively affect the knowledge of Choosing Wisely, but age presented a negative association.

Conclusion

This study found that physicians’ knowledge does not influence their attitudes and behaviours, which may be related to barriers of practicing Choosing Wisely activities. To effectively promote Choosing Wisely campaign, it is recommended to focus on the significant factors associated with emergency physicians’ perceptions regarding knowledge, attitude, and behavior of Choosing Wisely. Based on these factors, appropriate practice guidelines for Choosing Wisely can be formulated and promoted.