Nipissing District Developmental Screen: patterns of use by physicians in Ontario.

OBJECTIVE

To determine if providing the Nipissing District Developmental Screen (NDDS) free of charge is associated with increased use of this measure and to investigate regional variations in the use of the NDDS in Ontario.

DESIGN

Retrospective analysis of purchasing data from before the NDDS was available at no cost compared with analysis of the results of a brief questionnaire completed by those downloading the NDDS for free.

SETTING

Ontario.

PARTICIPANTS

Users of the NDDS.

INTERVENTION

Provision of free on-line access to the NDDS.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Patterns of purchasing or downloading of the NDDS by FPs and health care professionals (HCPs) before and after implementation of the program.

RESULTS

Before the program, 91 FPs (0.9% of FPs in Ontario) purchased the NDDS, and an additional 129 FPs (1.3% of FPs in Ontario) downloaded the NDDS in the year after the start of the program. Including all other HCPs increased the estimated number of users to 504 (representing an estimated 5.0% of all FPs in Ontario). Adjusting for group practice increased the estimate to 16.5% of all FPs in Ontario who had access to the NDDS. There were no significant differences in NDDS usage by FPs between central, southwestern, and northern Ontario (P > .05). Significantly fewer FPs in eastern Ontario accessed the NDDS than FPs in other areas of the province did (P < .001).

CONCLUSION

Despite measures to increase usage, only a small number of FPs access the NDDS in Ontario. However, free access to the NDDS does seem to contribute to removing barriers to screening, as indicated by a 3-fold increase in the number of FPs accessing the NDDS. Further research is required to investigate the reasons for these trends so that effective methods to increase the use of developmental screening measures in clinical practice can be implemented.