Attitudes and behaviors of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology assistants and specialists regarding mandatory infectious disease notification

Abstract

Introduction: Physicians' attitudes towards communicable disease reporting play an important role in inadequate reporting. The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes and behaviors of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology assistants, specialists and lecturers who are physicians that frequently encounter infectious diseases in secondary and tertiary health institutions.

Materials and Methods: Two hundred and fifty-one physicians were included into this cross-sectional study, weighted according to 7 geographical regions. An online questionnaire consisting of 26 questions was conducted to determine attitudes and behaviors related to infectious disease reporting. In addition to descriptive statistics, the responses of the physicians who participated in the study to the 12 questions related to infectious disease reporting were scored, and the notification attitude and behavior score was calculated.

Results: The average age of the physicians who participated in the study was 37.92 +/- 8.39, and 69.7% (n= 175) of the participants were females. Forty-seven percent (n= 118) of the physicians were specialists, 14.7% (n= 62) were research assistants, 11.2% (n= 28) were assistant professors, 9.2% (n= 23) were associate professors and 8.0% (n= 20) were professors. Seventy-one point three percent of the respondents (n= 179) stated that they did not receive training on infectious disease reporting. Only 62.5% (n= 157) of the physicians stated that they reported all infectious diseases that should be reported. Fifty-three point four percent (n= 134) of the physicians said it took too much time to report while 52.2% (n= 131) stated that it was not practical to report. 26.2% of the physicians stated that another disease/diagnosis code was entered to avoid filling out a notification form. Forty-two percent (n= 105) of the physicians stated that they did not know what was done in the post-notification process, and 55.2% (n= 138) thought that the post-notification examinations were not done.

Conclusion: Majority of the infectious diseases and clinical microbiology assistants, specialists and lecturers in Turkey were not trained about infectious disease reporting. Physicians do not report on the grounds that it is not practical to report and it takes too much time to report, and about a quarter of them enter a different diagnosis code in order not to report.