الفهرس 
AbstractOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 115 |  |  |
| | | from | 115 | | |
Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death globally, more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause, an estimated 17.1 million people died from CVDs in 2004, representing 29%of all global deaths. Of these deaths, an estimated 7.2 million were due to coronary heart disease and 5.7 million were due to stroke (Geneva, World Health Organization, 2007).
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide, resulting in more than 17 million deaths in 2008. Despite a decline in mortality from cardiovascular disease, it remains the leading cause of death in the United States Coronary heart disease (CHD) accounting for approximately 500,000 deaths per year and an associated annual morbidity cost of more than $200 billion(Dallas TX;2004).
Along with other risk factors – abnormal lipids, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, abdominal obesity, psychosocial factors, low consumption of fruit and vegetables, excess alcohol intake, and physical inactivity – gender and age account for 90% of the calculable risk for myocardial infarction (NCEP;2002).
Family physicians have the potential to considerably reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease through the optimal assessment of cardiovascular risk. By assessing and managing cardiovascular risk (CVR) factors, general practitioners can play an important role in the primary prevention of CVD (Johnson L and Allen A; 2008). Family physicians are playing and will play a key role in chronic disease prevention, identification and management since they are the frontlines and gateway to the healthcare system. It is estimated that patients with chronic disease account for 51% of all visits to family physicians(Wetmore, 2011).
The present study was cross sectional analytic study, to determine the family physician’s knowledge, attitude and practice regarding Cardiovascular risk assessment. The study was carried out in Family Medicine Department affiliated to Suez Canal University Hospitals. It included all family physicians under training in (Diploma, master degree and Fellowship) working in Family Medicine Practice Centers affiliated to Suez Canal University Hospitals (65 family physician). Their age ranged between 25 and 41 years (mean = 29.9±3.7), their experience in work range from 1-15 years (average 4.9 ±3.0). With a female predominance (83.1%), (41.5%) of physicians were having master degree, (50.8%) of physicians working in urban areas, about (56.9%) of them worked for <5 years. while only (50.8%) of them were qualified.
In the present study, nearly (82%) of studied physicians were aware by cardiovascular risk assessment guidelines, also, more than half of the participants (67.7%) aware by JNC7 guideline.
It was found that most of the participants (50.7%) in this study of poor knowledge regarding the assessment of cardiovascular risk, (49.2%) of the studied family physicians have unfavorable attitude regarding role modeling of health professionals on cardiovascular risk assessment. While, more than half (52.3%) of the studied family physicians have appropriate cardiovascular risk assessment practice.
The highest percentage of physicians’ barriers were focused on deficient investigation (90.8%), then poor physician skills (81.5%), while, training courses was the main recommendation (87.7%) of the family physician for improvement of cardiovascular risk assessment practice at family practice centers level.
It was obvious that, there was statistical significance between knowledge score and socio-demographic characteristics such as age (p=.002), experience (p=<0.001) and qualification (p=.002). There is statistical significance between attitude score and socio-demographic characteristics such as age (p=0.003), qualification (p=0.001) and number of patients seen per week (p=0.009).
Also, There was no statistical significance between the physicians’ practice score or attitude score on cardiovascular risk and their willingness to counsel patients to prevent cardiovascular risk (P >0.05),but there was statistical significance between the physicians’ knowledge score or attitude score (p=0.004).
• This study concluded that, there are areas of improvement that might be a stimulus to design a tailored educational intervention in order to improve the family physicians’ knowledge, attitude and practice of cardiovascular risk assessment.