Background: To evaluate if the Quality Commitment Campaign (QCC) was sufficiently known among primary care professionals (PC), and second, to evaluate the knowledge about certain recommendations of what should not be done in PC.
Methods: A observational study was conducted. General practitioners (GP), pediatricians (PED) and nursing (NUR) participated. A direct question was asked about whether QCC was known and a set of dichotomous questions based on the "do not do" recommendations to assess their knowledge. A sample size of 288 professionals from each group was the minimum required for a sampling error of 5%, 95% confidence level and p=0.75. The field study was conducted with the collaboration of health services and professional and scientific organizations. Data were described by frequencies and mean (standard deviation), and compared by means of ?2/Fisher or ANOVA and t-test.
Results: A total of 1,904 professionals (936 GP, 682 PED and 286 NUR) answered. The QCC initiative was known by 828 (43.5%) professionals: 524 (56.0%) GP, 234 (34.3%) PED and 70 (24.5%) NUR (p<0.001). All the questions were correctly answered by 652 (69.7%) GP, 631 (92.5%) PED and 116 (40.6%) NUR. Significantly more mistakes (p<0.001) were made by those who did not know the QCC, worked in the private sector or were not considered responsible for overuse. Despite not knowing the QCC, 60% GP and 90% PED answered all the questions of the test correctly.
Conclusions: NUR and GP could benefit from a greater diffusion of the QCC. As could those working in the private sector and those who believe that professionals have little responsibility for unnecessary overuse.