Table 1. Characteristics of physician and midwife participants and non-participants in the STD I-CE course.* .
| Course participants | Course non-participants | |||||
| (N = 642) | (N = 527)** | |||||
| Course users | Course non-users | |||||
| (N = 619) | (N = 23) | |||||
| Characteristics | Physicians | Midwives | Physicians | Midwives | Physicians | Midwives |
| n = 286 | n = 333 | n = 15 | n = 3 | n = 307 | n = 220 | |
| Age, years mean ±SD | 41.5 (10.7) | 37.9 (8.6) | 45.1 (12.6) | 35.3 (3.2) | 45.5 (12.0) | 37.3 (7.5) |
| Male gender, n (%) | 208 (72.7) | 51 (15.3) | 10 (66.7) | 1 (33.3) | 238 (77.5) | 45 (20.5) |
| Physicians' specialty, n (%) | ||||||
| General medicine (no specialty) | 134 (47.5) | 4 (26.7) | 141 (46.1) | |||
| Gynecology | 69 (24.4) | 7 (46.7) | 59 (19.3) | |||
| Internal medicine | 19 (6.7) | 2 (13.3) | 24 (7.8) | |||
| Other | 60 (21.3) | 2 (13.3) | 82 (26.8) | |||
| Length of practice, years mean ±SD | 13.0 (10.1) | 11 (7.6) | 15.4 (11.9) | 6.3 (1.2) | 16.6 (11.4) | 10.7 (6.3) |
| Private practice, n (%) | 242 (84.6) | 246 (73.9) | 15 (100) | 3 (100) | 307 (100) | 220 (100) |
| Practice sector†, n (%) | ||||||
| Private institutions | 161 (46.3) | 58 (17.5) | 12 (80.0) | - | 140 (45.8) | 51 (23.2) |
| Social Security | 82 (23.7) | 30 (9.1) | 5 (33.3) | - | 72 (23.5) | 9 (4.4) |
| Ministry of Health | 177 (50.9) | 155 (46.8) | 7 (46.7) | 2 (66.7) | 155 (50.7) | 74 (36.1) |
| Military | 23 (6.6) | 5 (1.5) | - | - | 23 (7.5) | 4 (2.01) |
| Universities | 38 (13.5) | 57 (17.2) | 4 (26.7) | 1 (33.3) | 35 (11.4) | 15 (6.8) |
| Other | 27 (9.4) | 83 (24.9) | 1 (6.7) | 1 (33.3) | 28 (9.2) | 73 (35.6) |
| PREVEN Network members††, n (%) | 175 (61.2) | 195 (58.6) | 13 (86.7) | 3 (100) | 174 (56.7) | 122 (55.5) |
*Numbers may not add to total because of missing data.
**Of the 561 total number of course non participants (private physicians and midwives who did not agree to participate) information was available only on 527 of them.
†
Many physicians and some midwives practiced in more than one sector.
††
PREVEN Network members were physicians and midwives who joined the PREVEN Network after completing a course and passing a test on STD and contraceptive management approximately a year prior to this study.