• Anthony D'Urzo and Prateek Sehgal.
• Chest. 2014 Mar 1;145(3 Suppl):458A.

Session TitlePhysiology/PFTs/Rehabilitation PostersSESSION TYPE: Poster PresentationsPRESENTED ON: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 01:15 PM - 02:15 PMPURPOSE: The reasons why spirometry remains underutilized in primary care are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to gather information related to perspectives about spirometry among family physicians as well as their knowledge of current spirometric diagnostic criteria (SDC) about asthma (CTS 2012) and COPD (GOLD 2013).MethodsParticipants included 88 family physicians who attended 4 standardized, accredited workshops in Canada between 2011 and 2013. Remote data capture devices were used to obtain (real-time) responses to 10 questions (component 1) regarding physician perspectives on spirometry including 4 questions relating to knowledge about SDC for asthma/COPD. Following a 25-minute didactic session (component 2) on spirometry interpretation strategies and SDC, responses to the 4 knowledge questions (component 3) asked in component 1 were obtained to assess the learning effect of workshop participation. Descriptive analysis was performed for component 1 while linear regression analysis was used to determine how well physician perspectives correlated with physician knowledge on SDC.ResultsComponent 1 analysis showed that 61% of physicians were not very or not at all comfortable with administrating a spirometry test. Only 9% of physicians were 'very' or 'extremely confident' in their ability to interpret a spirometry test. Linear regression analysis revealed that these variables were not strongly correlated to physician knowledge about SDC (p=0.36). Only 36% and 23% of physicians correctly answered knowledge questions about SDC for asthma and COPD, respectively. Physician knowledge of SDC improved significantly following the didactic training session using 2 metrics: 1) Number of physicians who answered at least ¾ of the questions correctly (p=0.02) and 2) Mean number of correct answers (p=0.008).ConclusionsFamily physicians appear to be uncomfortable in performing spirometry tests, lack confidence in spirometry interpretation, and demonstrated knowledge gaps relating to awareness of SDC for asthma and COPD. Workshop participation significantly improved physician knowledge.Clinical ImplicationsStrategies to improve confidence and knowledge related to spirometry principles should be studied in primary care in an effort to improve spirometry utilizationDisclosureThe following authors have nothing to disclose: Prateek Sehgal, Anthony D'UrzoNo Product/Research Disclosure Information.

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