Abstract
Objectives: The study objective was to determine the knowledge and management practices of primary care physicians on the management of asymptomatic hyperuricemia (AH).
Setting: The study was carried out in the outpatient clinic of Primary Health Centers (PHC) across Bisha Governorate in Saudi Arabia.
Method: We report on 165 primary care physicians involved in the management of AH. The Knowledge of basic pathophysiology of AH, clinical and laboratory assessments, as well as management recommendations based on dietary and initiation of urate-lowering therapy (ULT), were part of the adapted questionnaire. Their Knowledge of AH and their practices were assessed based on a scale developed to determine the appropriateness of their practices against the gold standard. Knowledge and practices were graded to good/adequate or poor/inadequate as observed and reported. Data was analyzed using SPSS v 23.
Primary outcome measure: The primary outcome measure was determining the proportion of the respondents with adequate Knowledge and practices of AH management.
Results: The mean age of the respondents was 41.3 years, with a standard deviation of 8.6. All the respondents work in public health facilities. Good knowledge and practices of AH were observed among 142 (86.6%) and less than half (72, 43.9%) of the physicians. Years of experience and having read about AH in the last 12 months were the factors found to be associated with good practice (P<0.05). When compared, significant association was found between GPs and other doctors on treating patients with comorbidities and arthropathy using urate-lowering therapies(P<0.05).
Conclusions: In the primary care setting studied, a high proportion of the physicians have adequate Knowledge about AH, but less than half of them put this Knowledge into practice. Good practices of AH management were determined by years of experience and reviewing the literature. Emphasis should be made on the practices of the physicians for proper service delivery.