A follow up study on the knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits of Maltese family doctors in disease prevention and health promotion

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Family doctors occupy a unique position to advocate for health promotion and disease prevention.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits of family doctors in Malta regarding health promotion and disease prevention and compare the results to similar studies carried out in 2000 and 2011.

METHOD: A validated questionnaire was distributed to all family doctors and general practitioner (GP) trainees in Malta. Structured interviews were conducted to further explore the results and formulate recommendations. Ethical permission was obtained for the study.

RESULTS: The response rate stood at 9.8% (49/501). Respondents showed disparities between belief and action for clinical examinations, investigations or advice for two clinical scenarios echoing findings from earlier studies. Around 28.5% of respondents faced challenges in delivering health promotion and disease prevention interventions, with the main barrier quoted being a heavy workload and a lack of time (85.6%). Most respondents considered themselves minimally effective at promoting tobacco reduction (53.1%), minimally effective (49.0%) or ineffective (2%) at promoting alcohol reduction (51.0%), either reasonably (57.1%) or very effective (2%) at promoting weight loss (59.1%), and reasonably effective at promoting regular exercise (61.2%). Variances between respondents in private practice and those in public centres regarding the perceived effectiveness of these interventions were noted. Recommendations include restructuring the primary care service to introduce specialised clinics for health promotion activities, further training, capitalising on digital solutions and dissemination of information.

CONCLUSIONS: The study highlighted the key barriers encountered in implementing disease prevention and health promotion interventions. Several actions that can enhance the practices of family doctors were proposed by respondents.