Abstract
BackgroundTravel has become an integral part of Saudi life. People with diabetes face many challenges while travelling that can have detrimental effects on glycaemic control. However, no previous studies have investigated pre-travel counselling in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of primary health care (PHC) physicians regarding pre-travel counselling for patients with type 2 diabetes.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in PHC centres under the Ministry of Health in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the period 2018–2019. A cluster multistage random sampling technique was used to recruit physicians. The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire.ResultsThree hundred and eighty-five primary health care physicians were recruited. This study showed that more than half (57.9%) of PHC physicians had poor knowledge scores. Additionally, the following characteristics were significantly associated with poor knowledge: being younger in age, being male, being Saudi, being a general practitioner, and having limited (0–5 years) experience. A total of 183 (47.5%) subjects showed disagreement attitudes towards the importance of pre-travel counselling among patients with diabetes. Furthermore, these disagreement attitudes were significantly associated with being older and having more years of experience. The majority (62.6%) of the physicians had poor practice scores. Poor practices were detected among physicians who were younger, male, and Saudi and who had a general practitioner specialty and degree.ConclusionsIt could be concluded that a gap was detected in the knowledge and practices of primary health care physicians regarding pre-travel counselling for people with type 2 diabetes. Therefore, it is necessary to create easily accessible travel medicine education programmes for Saudi PHC providers to improve the management of travellers with diabetes.
Highlights
Travel has become an integral part of Saudi life
Study setting A cross-sectional study was conducted using a selfadministered questionnaire among primary health care (PHC) physicians working at primary health care centres (PHCCs) under the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the period from September 2018 to March 2019
Regarding the attitudes of participants towards pretravel counselling, our results showed that more than half of participants strongly agreed that Saudi Arabia lacks the practice of travel medicine, and two-thirds strongly agreed that our society lacks knowledge of the importance of travel medicine
Summary
Travel has become an integral part of Saudi life. People with diabetes face many challenges while travelling that can have detrimental effects on glycaemic control. No previous studies have investigated pre-travel counselling in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of primary health care (PHC) physicians regarding pre-travel counselling for patients with type 2 diabetes. Travelling abroad, especially to a developing country, involves a health risk, and according to international surveys, over half of travellers could face a health problem during or after their trip. Travel places an individual in unfamiliar environments, which can be especially challenging for those with chronic diseases such as diabetes [2, 3]. A number of studies have shown that the choice of travel destination by patients with diabetes may be affected by their use of insulin, and some of those patients avoid international travel altogether because of their disease [4, 5]
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