Evaluation of asthma and COPD awareness in primary care doctors in Turkey

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic pulmonary diseases cause significant morbidity and mortality. However awareness about the risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and traetment of these disorders is low among patients and health care providers. Our aim was to evaluate the awareness of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among primary care doctors. This study was performed by the national Global Alliance Against Chronic Respiratory Diseases programme. Material and Methods: Primary care doctors employed by the Ministry of Healthy were included to the study. Turkish Statistical Institute randomly selected 680 doctors. Questionnaires evaluating the awareness of asthma and COPD which were developed by the Turkish Thoracic Society COPD and asthma assemblies were completed online by these doctors. Results: 84% of the doctors described asthma as airway obstruction. Dyspnea was reported as the most common symptom of asthma (78.8%) and inspiratory rhonci was reported as the most common physical exam finding (42.3%). Around 50% of doctors thought impairment of pulmonary function tests (PFT) was important for diagnosis and evaluation of severity of asthma while 24.2% thought physical exam was more important. When treatment options were evaluated 87.6% chose inhaled treatment for asthma. COPD was described as bronchiectasis and chronic bronchitis by 9.1%, chronic bronchitis and emphysema by 61.6%, chronic bronchitis and asthma by 22.2% and asthma and emphysema by 7.1%. 1.2% of the doctors did not consider cigarette smoking as a risk factor for COPD. PFT was recommended for diagnosis by 83%. Most correctly differentiated asthma and COPD. Bronchodilators were the first choice for COPD by 72.5%. Conclusion: Awareness is low for asthma and COPD among primary care doctors. Awareness should be raised among health care professionals for these diseases with high economical burden to improve outcome.