Behaviours related to clinical guideline use in 1568 primary care health practitioners, China, 2016
| Guideline utilisation | N (%) |
| Frequency of guideline use (n=1568)* | |
| Frequently | 177 (11.3) |
| Often | 556 (35.5) |
| Occasionally | 709 (45.2) |
| Never | 126 (8.0) |
| Sum | 1568 (100.0) |
| Sources of guidelines (n=1438) | |
| Public search engines | 911 (63.4) |
| Medical websites | 697 (48.5) |
| Materials distributed by institutions | 575 (40.0) |
| Professional academic journals | 413 (28.7) |
| Chinese biomedical databases | 408 (28.4) |
| Materials distributed by companies | 188 (13.1) |
| Foreign biomedical databases | 69 (4.8) |
| Unaware of how to obtain guidelines | 52 (3.6) |
| Preferred types of guidelines (n=1420) 1 | |
| Chinese guidelines for primary care institutions | 1024 (72.1) |
| Chinese guidelines for all medical institutions | 1006 (70.9) |
| Translated foreign guidelines (Chinese versions) | 261 (18.4) |
| Original foreign guidelines (English versions) | 66 (4.6) |
| Barriers to guideline use (n=1560) | |
| Lack of training | 778 (49.9) |
| Lack of access | 696 (44.6) |
| Lack of awareness | 592 (38.0) |
| Guidelines not updated in a timely manner | 559 (35.8) |
| Guidelines not sufficiently concise | 525 (33.7) |
| Limited practitioner knowledge | 480 (30.8) |
| Guidelines not practical for implementation at the grass-roots level | 477 (30.6) |
| Lack of oversight mechanisms to ensure medical practice fulfils the clinical recommendations | 329 (21.1) |
| Language barriers | 252 (16.2) |
| Lack of time to review guidelines | 227 (14.6) |
| Others | 5 (0.3) |
*‘Frequently’ was defined as using guidelines on a daily basis. ‘Often’ was defined as using guidelines on a weekly basis. ‘Occasionally’ was defined as using guidelines on a monthly basis.