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. 2022 Mar 16;10(3):545.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare10030545.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Primary Care Physicians towards COVID-19 in Greece: A Cross-Sectional Study

Emmanouil K Symvoulakis  1 , Ioannis Karageorgiou  2 , Manolis Linardakis  1 , Dimitrios Papagiannis  3 , Chrissi Hatzoglou  4 , Aristotelis Symeonidis  5 , Georgios Rachiotis  6
Affiliations

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Primary Care Physicians towards COVID-19 in Greece: A Cross-Sectional Study

Emmanouil K Symvoulakis et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of primary care physicians and residents towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted in Greece during March 2021. The population frame for the study was a list of currently practicing primary care physicians and residents who were registered within one of the main associations of general/family medicine in Greece. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression analysis was performed for practices at higher levels (vs. lower) in relation to knowledge, attitudes, and general characteristics of participants. Overall, 194 participants completed the survey (e-response rate: 38.4%). In total, 94% of participants were familiar with official recommendations regarding SARS-CoV-2, and 88.7% were vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 or promptly intended to be. Physicians working in the private sector had a higher average practices score when compared to physicians working in the public sector (87.6 vs. 81.9, p < 0.05). Higher levels of attitudes predicted greater odds for higher levels of practices (odds ratio = 4.18, p < 0.05). Despite the relatively high COVID-19 vaccination rate of physicians, several participants were unvaccinated due to a then unscheduled first dose appointment. Attitudes were the only determinant for more proper practices towards the prevention of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; attitudes; knowledge; practices; primary care; vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Sixth author A.S. works as Senior Associate, Solution Engineer, CDI at Pfizer Thessaloniki, Greece, with no conflict of interest occurring with the design or content of this article.

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