Practitioners and specialist family physicians working in primary stage in Ankara about obstructive sleep apnea syndromeknowledge, attitude and behavior

Aim: Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome is an important problem that is becoming increasingly widespread in the world as a result of changing life and eating habits and increasing obesity and affects the entire society. The aim of this study is to measure the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of specialist and general practitioner family physicians working in family health centers in Ankara about Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome and to raise awareness and curiosity about OSAS in family physicians. Materials and Methods: Our study is a cross-sectional study and was conducted by applying a face-to-face survey to specialist and general practitioner family physicians working in the central districts of Ankara between 15.04.2023 and 30.07.2023. In order to conduct the study, ethics committee approval was first obtained from Ankara University Faculty of Medicine Ethics Committee, and then research permission approval was obtained from Ankara Provincial Health Directorate, General Directorate of Public Health. In our study, a 17-question "sociodemographic data and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome attitude and behavior survey" and a 20-question "obstructive sleep apnea syndrome knowledge level measurement survey" regarding Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome were applied to 296 family physicians, who were reached by considering a 20% representation rate. SPSS 11.5 program was used in statistical analysis and the results were considered statistically significant when p<0.05. Results: A total of 296 family physicians participated in our study, 78.4% (232) of whom were general practitioners and 21.6% (64) of whom were specialists. 55.4% (164) of the participants are female and 44.6% (132) are male family physicians, and the age range is min. 24, max. 71 and the average age was 48.84±9.89. 63.5% of the participants have been working in the profession for 21+ years. The districts with the most participants were Keçiören (17.6%) and Çankaya (16.9%), while the least participants were in Gölbaşı (3%) and Pursaklar (3%). While 55.4% of the participants stated that there was an individual with OSAS in their circle, the rate of participants who stated that they had received training on OSAS was 23%. In the five-point Likert type survey questions we asked the participants about how they see their attitudes, behaviors and competencies about OSAS, 47% of the participants answered their level of knowledge about OSAS as "medium level". When the participants were asked how important a disease they considered OSAS to be, 85.8% of the participants stated that they considered it an "important" or "very important" disease. To the question asking their confidence in identifying individuals at risk for OSAS, 42.9% of the participants answered "moderate". In terms of being able to properly manage and guide patients with OSAS, the participants answered "I am moderately confident" with 36.1%, followed by the answer "I am somewhat confident" with 32.8%. When asked how often patients who described snoring at night and sleepiness during the day thought they had OSAS, 60.1% of the participants answered "most of the time" or "always". There is a significant difference between specialist and general practitioner family physicians in all 5 questions mentioned (p<0.05). Participants gave an average of 11.64 (58.2%) correct answers to the 20 questions in our OSAS knowledge level measurement survey. Gender, position, length of time in the profession, district of employment, presence of individuals with OSAS in the environment, and receiving training on OSAS did not create a significant difference in terms of the average correct answer rate (p>0.05). However, there is a significant difference between the participants' scores on evaluating their own knowledge of OSAS and their answers to the knowledge level measurement survey (p<0.001). While those who evaluated their knowledge level as 1 point answered an average of 8.65 (43.25%) questions correctly in the knowledge level measurement survey, this was 13.19 (65.95%) for those who gave themselves 4 points, and 12 (60%) for those who gave 5 points. . Likewise, a significant difference was detected when the participants' ratings of their confidence in identifying individuals at risk for OSAS were compared with the average number of correct answers given to the knowledge level measurement survey questions (p<0.001). In determining individuals at risk for OSAS, those who rated themselves as 1 point answered an average of 8.39 (41.95%) questions correctly in the knowledge level measurement survey, while this was 13.06% (65.33%) for those who rated themselves as 4 points, 13 for those who rated themselves as 5 points, and It was realized as 09 (65.45%). Conclusions: In our research, it was determined that family physicians working in primary care in Ankara were aware of the importance of OSAS, but their level of knowledge was lower than many similar studies. The fact that specialist family physicians' evaluation of their own knowledge about OSAS and their self-confidence in identifying individuals at risk are significantly different from generalist family physicians, shows the importance of receiving specialist training in family medicine. Training on OSAS, whose prevalence has increased especially with the effect of increasing obesity in the world, should be increased in medical faculties and in-service trainings of the Ministry of Health. Key Words: Apnea, Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS), Family Medicine, Family Physician, Primary Care