Primary Health Care Physician's Knowledge and Educational Needs Regarding Substance Abuse and Dependence in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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- Category: Vol. 79, March 2011
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Primary Health Care Physician's Knowledge and Educational Needs Regarding Substance Abuse and Dependence in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,ABDULLAH J. AL-SAHAFI and HASSAN M. ALMUSA
Abstract
Objectives: The current study aimed at assessing knowl-edge, attitude and educational needs of the primary health care (PHC) physicians.
Methods: One hundred and ten physicians were selected randomly and enrolled in the study to fulfil a pre-designed self-administered questionnaire.
Results: The majority of PHC physicians (90%) were confronted with less than 10 abusers through out the previous year. Meanwhile, although the majority of the physicians had reasonable knowledge about the signs and symptoms suggest-ing presence of substances/drugs abuse, nevertheless about one quarter (23.2%) indicated that they could manage cases of abuse, eventually, the majority of the physicians prefer to refer abusers to higher specialized health institutes, almost two thirds of the physicians (63.9%) addressed that it is necessary to include PHC centers in management of abusers, and they overwhelming majority (94.5%) agreed that they are in need for training in the field of recognition and management of substances/drugs abuse. It was recommended that there is a need for planning training courses for the PHC physicians regarding substances/drugs abuse.
Conclusions: PHC physicians in Jeddah have a reasonable level of knowledge about signs and symptoms suggesting abuse and dependence. Nevertheless, their confidence about their ability in the management of these cases is limited and they prefer to refer them to other specialized health institutes. Physicians agree to include PHC centers in the management of the abusers. The overwhelming majority of them are in need for training in the field of recognition and management of substances/drugs abusers.
Recommendations: Training courses for the PHC physi-cians regarding recognition and management of the substances/ drugs abuse should be incorporated in the continuous medical education program. A simplified screening check list for detection of substances/drugs abusers should be created and added to the general check-up list forms present in the family files, especially for adult individuals.