Family Physicians' Knowledge about and Attitudes towards COVID-19 - A Cross-sectional Multicentric Study

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected every country on earth, and family physicians (FPs) have helped patients at every stage. The first objective of our study was to study the FPs' knowledge about COVID-19 and second objective was to assess their attitudes, stress and death anxiety surrounding the current pandemic. Materials and Methods: An online questionnaire was prepared to collect responses from FPs between March-April 2020. A descriptive and correlational design was utilized. Results: 240 FPs from eight countries were evaluated. The majority reported that they received most information from medical journals (77%). Most of the respondents also noted that the most common symptoms were acute respiratory syndrome and fever - with the most effective treatment in most cases consisting of symptomatic treatment (41%). Although FPs generally had a positive attitude, most of them (68%) were concerned about contacting COVID-19 from patients and as a result, they experienced increased stress (64%). Conclusion: The research was conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak while the FPs were working on the frontline of the pandemic. This research revealed that most of the FPs had good knowledge of, and a positive attitude towards COVID-19 treatment. It was observed that participants who tended towards conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience, and who had higher life satisfaction, and lower levels of death anxiety also reported more positive attitudes towards COVID-19. While the main target population of COVID-19 disease were the older age groups, FPs' attitudes and fear levels were not associated with age, gender, or years of experience.