Knowledg attitudes and practices of patients attending west bay health center towards upper respiratory tract infections

Abstract EN

Upper respiratory tract infections (URI) are very com¬mon in general practice.

Although viruses cause the ma¬jority of URI, many patients expect antibiotic treatment.

At one Primary Health Care Center in Qatar, during October - November 2004, eleven hundred and eleven adult patients completed a short questionnaire on demographics, knowl¬edge, attitudes, practices towards URI, and patient satis¬faction.

Four hundred and forty eight (40.3 %) recognized viruses as the most common cause of URI; seven hundred and eighty-eight (70.9 %) chose consulting a physician as the first line of action when contracting URI; 721 (64.9 %) stated that management should be based on physician’s diagnosis while 28 % expected antibiotics.

A majority of participants acknowledged the importance of counseling in their satisfaction but 49.6 % reported dissatisfaction if antibiotics were not prescribed and 31.6 % reported seek¬ing antibiotics when not prescribed.

Participants expect¬ing antibiotics differed significantly regarding knowledge of causes of URI (p = 0.004).

There was no significant dif¬ference regarding factors affecting satisfaction based on antibiotic expectation.

Results highlight the need for public education and counseling on etiology, course, and management of URI by physicians.