Primary Health Care Physicians’ Knowledge about Managing Diabetic Patients Before and During Ramadan in Alexandria: A Mixed Methods Study

Document Type : Original Article

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Primary Health Care Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Primary care professionals have a key role in managing changes to therapeutic regimens for diabetes mellitus (DM) patients intending to fast the holy month of Ramadan. The study was conducted to assess the primary healthcare physicians (PCPs)/family physicians (FPs) knowledge about care of diabetics care during fasting Ramadan and exploring facilitating factors and barriers for gaining knowledge about good diabetes care before and during Ramadan.
Methods: A cross-sectional mixed quantitative and qualitative study design was conducted by using a pre-designed self-administered questionnaire to assess level of knowledge of 53 PCPs/FPs followed by the qualitative phase that consisted of semi structured interviews with a purposive sample of 12 PCPs/FPs guided by the theory of planned behavior.
Results: The average total knowledge score for all respondents was 55.8%. Only 3.8% of PCPs/FPs had a good level of overall knowledge. As for knowledge levels by risk stratification for diabetic patients, approximately 62% of PCPs/FPs scored less than 50%. Over 56% of PCPs/FPs had a score above 75% on pre-Ramadan health education. Meanwhile, 5.7% scored above 75% on knowledge regarding managing diabetics throughout Ramadan. Attitudes towards knowledge seeking in diabetes management varied based on personal or patient benefits, motivation, educational qualifications, fear of accountability, and patient willingness. Barriers to knowledge acquisition included workload, workforce shortages, geographical location, and information dissemination methods.
Conclusions: The study identified knowledge gaps in preparing PCPs/FPs to manage patients' therapeutic regimens during fasting in Ramadan, highlighting the importance of specific training and management of barriers.

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