The effectiveness of an educational programme on occupational disease reporting

• Published in: Occupational medicine (Oxford) Vol. 58; no. 5; pp. 373 - 375
• Main Authors: Smits, P. B. A., de Boer, A. G. E. M., Kuijer, P. P. F. M., Braam, I., Spreeuwers, D., Lenderink, A. F., Verbeek, J. H. A. M., van Dijk, F. J. H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 01-08-2008; Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
• Subjects: Attitude of Health Personnel; Biological and medical sciences; Consumer Behavior; Continuing medical education; Disclosure; Education, Medical, Continuing - methods; Education, Medical, Continuing - standards; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health participants; Humans; Medical sciences; Netherlands; occupational diseases; Occupational Diseases - epidemiology; Occupational Health Services; occupational physicians; Practice Patterns, Physicians; Program Evaluation; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Self Efficacy; Netherlands; Europe; Continuing medical education; occupational diseases; occupational physicians; Continuing education; Human; Occupational disease; Efficiency; Health staff; Physician; Occupational medicine; Notification
• ISSN: 0962-7480; 1471-8405
• DOI: 10.1093/occmed/kqn061

Background: Occupational diseases are under reported. Targeted education of occupational physicians (OPs) may improve their rate of reporting occupational diseases. Aim: To study the effectiveness of an active multifaceted workshop aimed at improving OPs’ reporting of occupational diseases. Methods: We undertook a comparative study with 112 OPs in the intervention group and 571 OPs as comparisons. The intervention was a 1-day workshop. Measurements of occupational disease reporting activity in both groups in 6-month periods before and after the intervention were collected via the national registration system. Measurements of OPs’ knowledge, self-efficacy and satisfaction were made in the intervention group. Differences between the groups and predictive factors for reporting were subsequently analysed statistically. Results: The percentage of reporting OPs after the intervention was significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the comparison group at 19 versus 11% (P < 0.01). No differences were found in the average number of reported occupational diseases per reporting physician after the intervention: 3.7 (SD 5.37) versus 3.4 (SD 4.56) (not significant). The self-efficacy score was a predictive factor for reporting occupational diseases (P < 0.05). Measurements of knowledge and self-efficacy increased significantly (both parameters P < 0.001) and remained after half a year. Satisfaction was high (7.85 of 10). Conclusions: An active, multifaceted workshop on occupational diseases is effective in increasing the number of physicians reporting occupational diseases. Self-efficacy measures are a predictive factor for such reporting.