Abstract

Assessing Physician Knowledge and Attitude on Food Borne Illnesses in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background: Foodborne diseases are considered to be one of the emerging public health issues in the entire world. Poor standard of living is one of the main risk factors for the foodborne illness. The cases of foodborne diseases increase as a result of new emerging pathogens. It is evident that good knowledge of physicians helps in good diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, the objective of the current study is to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of public and private primary health care physicians and its association. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the selected public and private primary health care centers in the city of Abha located in the southwestern region of Asir in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from October 2017 to March 2018. A total of 84 public and private healthcare centers were included in the study. A structured questionnaire was developed by using the existing literature. Results: Total of 125 physicians from both public and private primary health care centers participated in this study. No significant difference was found between the physicians operating in private and public primary health care centers in terms of knowledge and attitude. Results indicate that knowledge varies according to age, gender and years of experience. Conclusion: The knowledge and attitude of both public and private primary health care physicians are adequate but still there is a necessity to conduct training programs in a regular interval for enhancing the knowledge about the foodborne illness among physicians.

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