Is knowledge retained by healthcare providers after training? A pragmatic evaluation of drug-resistant tuberculosis management in China.
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ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:Considering the urgent need of training to improve standardised management of drug-resistant infectious disease and the lack of evidence on the impact of training, this study evaluates whether training participants' knowledge on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is improved immediately and a year after training. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS:The study involved 91 MDR-TB healthcare providers (HCPs), including clinical doctors, nurses and CDC staff, who attended a new MDR-TB HCP training programme in Liaoning and Jiangxi provinces, China. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:A phone-based assessment of participants' long-term retention of knowledge about MDR-TB management was conducted in July 2017, approximately 1?year after training. The proportion of correct responses in the long-term knowledge assessment was compared with a pretraining test and an immediate post-training test using a ?2 test. Factors influencing participants' performance in the long-term knowledge assessment were analysed using linear regression. RESULTS:Across both provinces, knowledge of definitions of drug-resistant TB, standardised MDR-TB case detection protocols and laboratory diagnosis was improved 1?year after the training by 14.5% (p=0.037), 32.4% (p<0.001) and 31% (p<0.001) relative to pretraining. However, compared with immediately after training, the knowledge of the three topics declined by 26.5% (p=0.003), 19.8% (p=0.018) and 52.7% (p<0.001) respectively in Jiangxi, while no significant decline was observed in Liaoning. Additionally, we found that obtaining a higher score in the long-term knowledge assessment was associated with longer years of clinical experience (coefficient=0.51; 95?CI% 0.02 to 0.99; p=0.041) and attending training in Liaoning (coefficient=0.50; 95%?CI 0.14 to 0.85; p=0.007). CONCLUSION:Our study, the first to assess knowledge retention of MDR-TB HCPs 1?year after training, showed an overall positive long-term impact of lecture-style group training on participants' knowledge. Knowledge decline 1?year after training was observed in one province, Jiangxi, and this may be partly addressed by targeted support to HCPs with fewer years of clinical experience.
SUBMITTER: Wu S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6475142 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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