TY - JOUR T1 - Characteristics of GPs responding to an educational intervention to minimise inappropriate prescriptions: subgroup analyses of the Rx-PAD study JF - BJGP Open JO - BJGP Open DO - 10.3399/bjgpopen18X101373 SP - bjgpopen18X101373 AU - Sture Rognstad AU - Mette Brekke AU - Ibrahimu Mdala AU - Arne Fetveit AU - Svein Gjelstad AU - Jørund Straand Y1 - 2018/02/20 UR - http://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2018/02/19/bjgpopen18X101373.abstract N2 - Background Interventions aimed at improving GPs’ prescribing practice usually apply a 'one size fits all' when analysing intervention effects. Few studies explore intervention effects by variables related to the GPs’ age, sex, specialist status, practice type (single-handed versus group), practice setting (urban versus rural), and baseline performance regarding the target of an intervention.Aim To explore the characteristics of the GPs responding to a comprehensive educational intervention.Design & setting A secondary analysis of a cluster, randomised educational intervention in Norwegian general practice. Pre-intervention data were captured from January 2005 to December 2005, and post-intervention data from June 2006 to June 2007. The intervention was carried out from January to June 2006.Method Eighty continuing medical education (CME) groups, including 449 GPs aged 27–68 years, were randomly allocated to either an education intervention arm (41 groups, 250 GPs) or a control arm (39 groups, 199 GPs). The primary outcome was GPs' change in potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs) per 100 prescriptions issued to patients aged ≥70 years. The interaction between intervention outcome and variables related to the GPs and their practices were tested.Results Improvements in prescribing were highest among GPs aged 57–68 years (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.77 [95% confidence interval {CI} = 0.73 to 0.81]), those who were specialists (IRR = 0.80 [95% CI = 0.78 to 0.82]), and those who worked in single-handed practices (IRR = 0.75 [95% CI = 0.68 to 0.83]), among GPs with 2.4 to 2.9 PIPs per 100 prescriptions at baseline (IRR = 0.74 [95% CI = 0.70 to 0.78]), and GPs with ≥15 prescriptions per patient per year at baseline (IRR = 0.77 [95% CI = 0.73 to 0.80]).Conclusion The GPs with the lowest adherence to recommended practice at baseline improved their practice most. ER -