The knowledge of primary care physicians about cystic fibrosis disease, follow up and its newborn screening

Authors

  • Mehmet Semih Demirtaş İnönü Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Turgut Özal Tıp Merkezi, Çocuk Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, Malatya
  • Erdem Topal İnönü Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Turgut Özal Tıp Merkezi, Çocuk Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, Malatya
  • Fatih Kaplan İnönü Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Turgut Özal Tıp Merkezi, Çocuk Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, Malatya
  • Talat Kılıç İnönü Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Turgut Özal Tıp Merkezi, Göğüs Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, Malatya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15511/tahd.19.00264

Keywords:

primary care physician, cystic fibrosis, knowledge level

Abstract

Introduction: Cystic fibrosis is a chronic disease with a high mortality and morbidity rate, with autosomal recessive transmission seen at 1: 3000 births and more common in the white race. Early diagnosis effects the life survey and quality of the patient’s. In Turkey, cystic fibrosis As of January 2015 started to be applied to newborn screening test. This work; aimed to measure the level of knowledge of cystic fibrosis disease and cystic fibrosis neonatal screening in family physicians working in primary care.

Methods: A total of volunteered 115 family physicians working in Malatya province were included into the study. Face-to-face interviews were held with family physicians and a survey was completed. The study was approved by the Ethical Committee Presidency of Clinical Investigations in Malatya. SPSS SPSS SPSS (SPSS for Windows, Version 20.0, SPSS Inc, USA) was implemented. Findings: The average age of the family physicians was 42 years (30-50 years) and 65 (56.5%) were male. The median duration of family physicians was 17 years (5-25). When the knowledge level of family physicians about cystic fibrosis disease was analyed, 103 (89.6%) physicians knew that the disease was autosomal recessive. When asked for symptoms suggestive of cystic fibrosis, they indicated that growth retardation (80.9%) and recurrent lung infection suggested cystic fibrosis (90.4%). Although 96.5% of the participants knew that sweat testing was needed for the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis, only 31.3% knew that the Cl concentration had to be above 60 mmol/L for sweat test positivity. Of the participants 84.3% stated that in the neonatal period, cystic fibrosis screening test was performed in our country; 62.6% of the participants knew that patients with positive CF test should be referred to a cystic fibrosis center. When the participants were asked about the follow-up of patients with cystic fibrosis; Only 21 (17.3%) pysicians knew that patients had to be followed-up at 3-6 months intervals. Only 39 (33.9%) family physicians knew that patients with cystic fibrosis should continue regular chest physiotherapy.

Conclusion: Family physicians working in a primary care setting have insufficient knowledge of cystic fibrosis disease and its follow-up. Therefore, pre-graduate education in medical schools and post-graduate graduation for cystic fibrosis disease should be given importance.

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Published

2019-06-15

Issue

Section

Research Article

How to Cite

Demirtaş, M. S., Topal, E., Kaplan, F., & Kılıç, T. (2019). The knowledge of primary care physicians about cystic fibrosis disease, follow up and its newborn screening. Demo Journal, 23(2), 64-69. https://doi.org/10.15511/tahd.19.00264