Periodic Health Examination Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior among Primary Care Physicians: A Descriptive Study of Preventive Care in Turkey

Abstract

Aim: Primary care physicians play an important role in providing the services of health counseling, and early disease diagnosis. This study aims to reveal the practice status of periodic health examinations (PHE), influencing factors and primary care clinicians' knowledge, attitudes and behavior about PHE in Turkey. Materials-Methods: The study was conducted between December 2014 and April 2015 with the participation of 629 family medicine specialists and general practitioners, randomly selected through stratified sampling from all 7 geographical regions in Turkey. Physicians were asked to answer the questionnaire on a face to face manner (response rate %100). Besides 17 questions on socio-demographic items and specifications of PHE, the questionnaire consists of 12 questions including 4 knowledge, 4 attitudes, 2 behavior, and 2 questions on preferences. Results: Of the respondents 19.4% were specialists, and 55.3% of all physicians applied PHE periodically. However, 68.4% of respondents stated that PHEs are insufficiently applied in primary care and %37 think that the rates of PHEs would increase when registered patient population per physician would decrease. Specialists were significantly more applying PHE and had significantly more correct answers regarding knowledge, attitude and behavior questions (p<0.05). Physicians working in regions with higher socioeconomic levels had significantly more correct answers regarding knowledge about PHE (p<0.001). However, attitude and behavior levels on PHE in socioeconomically compromised regions like South-Eastern Anatolia and Black Sea Region were significantly lower (p<0.001). Our study suggests that special training on PHE does not play a decisive role in using PHE in daily practice (p>0.05).