5-year followup of the effect on optometrists of continuing education about hypertension.

All 319 participants of an intensive continuing education course on optometric hypertension screening at the University of Alabama at Birmingham were surveyed 5 years after completion of the course. Almost 85 percent of 211 responding optometrists reported that they were continuing to screen for hypertension in their practices. They estimated that 24 percent of their patients had hypertension and that of these 11 percent were previously undetected. The criteria used by these optometrists for tentative diagnosis and referral were consistent with currently accepted guidelines. Hypertension screening by optometrists is cost-effective, and this survey suggests that continuing education courses providing intensive didactic and clinical instruction may be an effective method for changing clinicians' behavior. For most optometrists who participated in this continuing education program, the program appears to have positively changed their clinical behavior.