Sustainability of change with quality general practitioner education in adolescent health: a 5-year follow-up

Objective To determine whether improvements gained in general practitioners' (GPs') self‐perceived competency, attitudes and knowledge after an intervention in adolescent health care designed with evidence‐based strategies in continuing medical education, are maintained longterm, 5 years post intervention. The intervention was designed with evidence‐based strategies in continuing medical education. Design We carried out a follow‐up postal survey of the cohort of metropolitan Australian GPs trained in the intervention 5 years previously. Measures Subsets of the original measures, used in the randomised controlled trial of the intervention, were selected to re‐assess the GPs by postal survey. Self‐perceived competency, attitude and knowledge were measured. Doctors were also asked about further training in adolescent health over the 5 years since the intervention and about self‐reported practice. Results A total of 46 of 54 (85%) of the original intervention group returned a questionnaire. Scores at 5 years were all higher than at baseline (P