Abstract

CABRERA-PIVARAL, Carlos E; GUTIERREZ-RUVALCABA, Clara Luz; PERALTA-HEREDIA, Irma Concepción  and  ALONSO-REYNOSO, Carlos. Development and validation of an instrument to measure family physicians' clinical aptitude in metabolic syndrome in Mexico. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2008, vol.50, n.6, pp.457-462. ISSN 0036-3634.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this work was to measure family physicians' clinical aptitude for the diagnosis and treatment of metabolic syndrome in a representative sample from six Family Medicine Units (UMF) at the Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS), in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. A validated and structured instrument was used, with a confidence coefficient (Kuder-Richardson) of 0.95, that was applied to a representative sample of 90 family physicians throughout six UMFs in Guadalajara, between 2003 and 2004. Mann-Whitney's U and Kruskal-Wallis' tests were used to compare two or more groups, and the Perez-Viniegra Test was used to define aptitude development levels. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were found in aptitude development between the six family medicine units groups and other comparative groups. CONCLUSIONS: The generally low level of clinical aptitude, and its indicators, reflects limitations on the part of family physicians at the IMSS in Jalisco to identify and manage metabolic syndrome.

Keywords : aptitude; metabolic X syndrome; education; Mexico.

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