Article
Personalised Self-Management Support Programme (P-SUP) from the perspective of Family Medicine: Benefits, practicability and implementation
Search Medline for
Authors
Published: | September 25, 2020 |
---|
Outline
Text
Background and current state of (inter)national research: With the introduction of structured disease management programmes (DMP) for chronic diseases, care processes were optimised and the health status of participating patients improved. The continuing development of DMPs remains a focus of international health services research. A promising approach are peer support programmes, which primarily improve the health competency and self-management of the patients and thus contribute to lasting lifestyle changes.
Questions and objectives: The aim of the project is to survey the attitude of general practitioners (GP) towards the Personalised Self-Management Support Programmes (P-SUP) for the DMPs diabetes mellitus type 2 and coronary heart disease.
Methods or hypothesis: An anonymous web-based questionnaire survey was conducted among 897 GPs from North Rhine-Westphalia. Two reminders were sent in addition to the initial invitation. The questionnaire describes details of peer support programmes and addresses aspects related to the role of GPs: e.g. which patients they would consider for the programme, which patients they would approach as peer-support leaders, how best to match peer-support groups, how a peer-support programme might interact with the GPs‘ care of their patients. The data will be analysed with SPSS and qualitative analysis.
Results: The current participation rate is 15% (134 out of 897). Preliminary results show that peer-support programmes are positively evaluated by the GPs surveyed (65.7%), and even 89.3% would recommend participation in such a programme. The majority of GPs (73.2%) have specific patients in the target group in mind, whereas about every fifth would make a general recommendation to participate. However, GPs hardly expect long-term easing effects on their workload. The final results will be presented at the congress.
Discussion: The survey fell into the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic. This may have had a negative impact on the participation rate. Nonetheless, the survey will provide important insights for the development and implementation of peer-support programmes from the perspective of general practice.
Practical implications: The results will provide indications of factors that hinder and support the implementation of such programmes. These can be included at an early stage of programme development in the P-SUP project.