Increasing Primary Care Providers’ Knowledge, Confidence, and Screening for Eating Disorders

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project is to enhance primary care providers’ knowledge, confidence, and screening for eating disorders through a short educational presentation and screening/resources handout. Background: Eating disorders have high morbidity and mortality rates. Young females are the group most greatly impacted by eating disorders with both mental and physical well-being at risk. Deficits have been identified in screening, confidence, education, and knowledge of primary care providers to adequately diagnose and care for patients with eating disorders. The SCOFF questionnaire is a short, simple, reliable, and validated screening tool to help providers identify eating disorders. Methods: This quality improvement project evaluates the effectiveness of an educational presentation and screening/resource tool for eating disorders. Primary care providers were invited to attend a 15-minute presentation on eating disorder definitions, prevalence, risk factors, potential outcomes, screening, treatment, and resources. Providers were also introduced to a handout that included the SCOFF screening tool and educational/referral resources. Participants then were asked to complete a post-intervention survey between 1-2 weeks of education via Qualtrics for analysis. Results: The total data collection period was 15 days. Fourteen providers completed the post-intervention survey. More than half (53%) of providers felt “more knowledgeable” or “much more knowledgeable” about resources available for patients after the interventions. And 37% of providers felt “more knowledgeable” or “much more knowledgeable” in discussing and helping patients with eating disorders after the interventions. Prior to the interventions, 75% of providers reported being “not confident at all” or only “somewhat confident” in helping providers with eating disorders. After the interventions, 92% of providers reported being “somewhat more confident,” “more confident,” or “much more confident,” when looking at confidence in helping patients with eating disorders. When looking at screening, before the interventions, 43% of providers reported “never” screening, while after the interventions, less than 15% of providers reported “never,” and the majority (58%) reported screening “most of the time” or “always.” Conclusion A short PowerPoint educational presentation with a screening/resources handout are effective intervention to improve primary care providers’ knowledge, confidence, perceived importance, and screening for eating disorders at UCHC.