Communicating accuracy of tests to general practitioners: a controlled study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess the extent to which different forms of summarising diagnostic test information influence general practitioners' ability to estimate disease probabilities.

Design

Controlled questionnaire study.

Setting

Three Swiss conferences in continuous medical education.

Participants

263 general practitioners.

Intervention

Questionnaire with multiple choice questions about terms of test accuracy and a clinical vignette with the results of a diagnostic test described in three different ways (test result only, test result plus test sensitivity and specificity, test result plus the positive likelihood ratio presented in plain language).

Main outcome measures

Doctors' knowledge and application of terms of test accuracy and estimation of disease

SUBMITTER: Steurer J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC100792 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature