FRI0699 Rheumatology talks to the community: results of an educational intervention

Background: Rheumatology is a relatively new medical specialty, and mostly unknown to the general population. Thanks to close collaboration between rheumatologists and primary care physicians (PCP), and the availability of revolutionary drugs in the last decades, it has become a fundamental part of the management of patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Besides information to PCP, it is equally important that the population is aware of what rheumatology is, and the diseases it treats. We decided to inform the population about the most prevalent disorders: osteoarthritis (OA), osteoporosis and gout, through talks in both urban and rural settings. Objectives: To evaluate the short-term acquired knowledge after rheumatology talks in people from the general population. Methods: Through a consulting firm, informative talks were offered in different city councils. They were finally conducted in 5 urban and rural towns between March 2016 and January 2017. The activity dissemination was in charge of each council and offered to the whole community. Each talk lasted about 1.5 hours: a theoretical part in both co-official languages during 60 minutes, with some questions from the audience afterwards, as well as the completion of a 6-multiple choice-question survey evaluating some concepts from the talk. Topics included were: an explanation of what is rheumatology, and general aspects of OA, osteoporosis and gout. The answers to the survey were classified as correct and incorrect. Results: 94.3% of the audience answered the survey. A total of 174 surveys from 5 towns were recovered. There was a higher participation from urban locations (40.2% of the total attendance). Despite being an educational activity for the whole community, the audience was mostly female (90.3%), with a median age of 69 years (IQR 63 to 74 years). Regarding language, 13.2% of attendees answered the survey in the other language. Concerning the topics, 66.5% answered correctly about the definition of rheumatology and 87% about foods to avoid in gout. OA and osteoporosis had two questions each, with 92.5% of correct answers in the former and 80.2% in the latter. Osteoporosis recorded the highest percentage of correct answers within the survey (96.9%), in a question related to calcium-rich foods. When comparing rural and urban locations, there were only statistically significant differences in the question related to gout, with a greater percentage of correct answers amongst attendees of rural towns (94.7 vs 75.8% respectively). Conclusions: According to our results, Rheumatology talks seem to be more attractive to elderly female population. Knowledge acquired after talks has been good for OA and osteoporosis, both being prevalent conditions in this group of patients. We believe it is important to encourage rheumatology-related educational activities for the general population, and that these activities should be adjusted to the demographic characteristics of the focus group. Acknowledgements: Gehilan2000 consulting firm. Disclosure of Interest: None declared