Primary Care Clinicians’ Knowledge and Confidence About Newborn Screening for Sickle Cell Disease: Randomized Assessment of Educational Strategies

Abstract

In Massachusetts, primary care clinicians receive and act upon hemoglobinopathy newborn screening results. We assessed clinicians' knowledge, confidence, and practices regarding hemoglobinopathy newborn screening, and the effect of mailed educational materials vs interactive seminar on knowledge and confidence. A randomized educational intervention trial was performed at 15 community health sites. Practices were randomized to determine the order in which the educational interventions were administered: mailed educational materials first or interactive seminars on the management of hemoglobinopathy newborn screening results first. Clinicians' demographics, knowledge, confidence, and practices were assessed by a survey. Posttests were administered soon after the intervention. Responses came from 85 of 170 eligible providers (50%). Twenty-nine percent of respondents provided both pretests and posttests. In respondents with paired data, knowledge on a 5-point scale improved by 1.4 +/- 0.4 (mean +/- standard error of the mean, p = .003), while self-efficacy on a 16-point scale increased by 1.3 +/- 0.3, p = .002. There were no significant differences between seminar and mailed-materials groups. Both educational strategies led to modest improvements in knowledge about newborn screening for hemoglobin disorders. Enhancing knowledge and confidence about newborn screening-related tasks may improve clinicians' capacity to act upon newborn screening results for hemoglobinopathies.