@article{27036,
  keywords = {First line health care},
  author = {Yap FB and Kiung ST},
  title = {Knowledge and Confidence in the diagnosis and management of leprosy among Family Medicine Specialists in Malaysia.},
  abstract = {<h4>Editor's abstract:</h4>

<h4><u>Background</u>: Family Medicine Specialists (FMS) plays a pivotal role in the detection of leprosy in primary care. This study determines the knowledge and confidence among FMS in Malaysia.</h4>

<h4><u>Method</u>: Pre-intervention questionnaire were conducted followed by a 3 days educational intervention. Post-intervention questionnaire were conducted again 2 months thereafter. The questionnaire assessed knowledge and confidence in the diagnosis and management of leprosy.</h4>

<h4><u>Results: </u>The mean total marks for the pre-intervention knowledge questionnaires was 35.4 out of 50 and the mean confidence was 4.0 out of 10 for diagnosis and 3.3 out of 10 for management. Knowledge improved 24.0% post-intervention (p&lt;0.001). Knowledge on pathogenesis and clinical features improved the most with 38.5% and 32.4% respectively whereas knowledge on leprosy reactions improved the least with only 15.1%. The confidence level improved 85% to 7.4 for diagnosis and 118.2% to 7.2 for management post-intervention (p&lt;0.001). FMS with more experience, seeing more than 5 patients in their working life, had better confidence pre-intervention but it became insignificant post-intervention.</h4>

<h4><u>Conclusion</u>: Knowledge of FMS was good but their confidence was low pre-intervention. They improved significantly post-intervention. It is hoped that the improvement can allow for earlier detection of leprosy to prevent clinical and epidemiological sequelae.</h4>

<h4>&nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>
},
  year = {2015},
  journal = {Journal of Dermatology & Dermatologic Surgery},
  issn = {23522410},
  url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352241015000614 },
  doi = {10.1016/j.jdds.2015.11.005},
  language = {eng},
}