Awareness of hypertension guidelines in primary healthcare in Poland

Abstract

The study was aimed at evaluating knowledge of the recent ESH-ESC Guidelines for the management of hypertension among Polish primary care physicians. A validated questionnaire including 30 multiple-choice questions was developed. A representative sample of primary care physicians in Poland was asked to complete the questionnaire. The influence of physicians' characteristics and features of their practices on the quality of the answers was analyzed. The sample included 192 physicians; 125 of them responded to the questionnaire. The mean number of correct answers was 13.4+/-3.1. The best results were observed with regard to treatment (61.2% correct answers), with weaker scores for diagnosis of hypertension (35.2%) and diagnostic tests (31.8%). The results were significantly better among female physicians and physicians working in large towns. The final score was significantly correlated with length of professional experience in practice (r = -0.246, p<0.01). A similar but non-significant correlation with the age of the physician was observed. The study showed that knowledge of hypertension guidelines among primary care physicians in Poland is modest. Educational programs must be especially directed at practitioners with longer primary care experience and those from smaller towns and villages.