Professional practice, years of practice in the performance of health prevention and promotion activities in first-line physicians of the Sousse region

Abstract

In order to identify the impact of the area of activity and years of practice on doctor's attitudes and practices regarding prevention and health promotion, a survey has been conducted among all primary health care practitioners active in the area of Sousse (central Tunisia). There are more positive attitudes among doctors working in public service as compared with those working in the private sector; however, in practice, the behaviors are similar between the two groups. Although young practitioners are less involved than others in prevention and health promotion activities, the impact of years of practice are not obvious. For both groups, the main obstacles to prevention and health promotion activities are: 1. the doctor's belief that his advice has little impact on individuals' changes of behavior, 2. his perception of the difficulty in changing behavior in general and 3. the lack of time for these activities. In this analysis, at least 2 factors have to be considered: a patients' differential attraction to a specific mode of practice and a doctors' differential attraction to public or private health practice.