5 Developing a scale to measure clinician knowledge, understanding, attitudes and practices around overdiagnosis

Abstract

Measuring clinician knowledge, understanding and attitudes to overdiagnosis are key to understanding the drivers of overdiagnosis, developing strategies to reduce overdiagnosis, and assessing the effectiveness of interventions aiming to prevent overdiagnosis. As the responsibility of ordering screening and diagnostic tests falls to clinicians, changing clinician attitudes to overdiagnosis and clinicians’ test-ordering practices has great potential to reduce overdiagnosis. The development of a scale to measure clinician knowledge, understanding, attitudes and practices around overdiagnosis would be valuable as a means of measuring the impact of clinician-targeted interventions. To date, scales to measure knowledge and attitudes about overdiagnosis have only been developed for patients and the general public, with no scale available for clinicians.