Do consensus conferences influence their participants?

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether participation in a consensus conference on the assessment of dementia would influence conference participants with respect to their recommendations to primary care physicians for the assessment of dementia.

DESIGN

Questionnaire before and after the conference.

SETTING

Canadian Consensus Conference on the Assessment of Dementia, held in Montreal, Oct. 5 and 6, 1989.

PARTICIPANTS

All 38 experts representing relevant health disciplines who participated in the consensus conference; 36 completed both questionnaires.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Participants' opinion before and after the conference as to how frequently each of 28 manoeuvres (12 blood tests, 4 neurologic imaging procedures, 4 types of consultation and 8 "other" tests) should be ordered by primary care physicians as part of an assessment of a patient with dementia suspected in clinical grounds.

RESULTS

For 18 (64%) of the 28 manoeuvres (10 of the 12 blood tests, 3 of the 4 neurologic imaging procedures and 5 of the 8 "other" tests), there was a shift in opinion after the conference toward recommending that primary care physicians order them less often; for 10 of these 18 (5 blood tests and 5 "other" tests) the shift was statistically significant. For the remaining 10 manoeuvres (36%) the shift in opinion was toward a recommendation that primary care physicians order them more often; the shift was not statistically significant for any of these 10 manoeuvres.

CONCLUSION

Expert members of a consensus conference are influenced by the process of having participated in such a conference and are capable and willing to chance their initial recommendations when confronted with relevant data.