The level of knowledge for periodic health examination of family medicine residents in Samsun (province)

Objective: It is aimed to improve preventive health services, which can be summarized as the protection and improvement of health, with periodic health examinations (PHE). PHE is a service that includes examination and screening tests based on evidence according to the gender and age groups of the person, counseling, patient education activities and immunization for the risk factors of the diseases that most affect mortality and morbidity in the society. The aim of our study is to determine the level of knowledge of family medicine residents, who is working in Samsun and will carry out primary health care services in the future, about the "Periodic health examinations and screening tests recommended in family medicine practice" guide of the Ministry of Health and to emphasize the importance and necessity of this issue in terms of public health. Method: It was planned as analytical, cross-sectional and. The universe of our study consists of a total of 137 family medicine residents, 114 of whom are full-time family medicine residents and 23 are training of contracted family residents, working in Samsun. The data were obtained from the data collection form prepared by the researchers of this study, using the literature, in line with the recommendations in the guideline of the Ministry of Health, "Recommended Periodic Health Examinations and Screening Tests in Family Medicine Practice" published in 2015. The first 14 questions in our data collection form are about the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, and the following 65 questions are about PHE. SPSS (Statistical Packet for The Social Science) 25.0 package program was used for data analysis in the study. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Spearman correlation analysis, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis H test, Games-Howell Post-Hoc test, chi square test were used in the statistical analysis of the data. The level of significance was determined as p<0.05 in all analyzes. Results: In our study, in the universe of 137 people; we reached a total of 118 people, including 97 full-time family medicine residents and 21 training of contracted family residents. 82.2% (n= 97) of the participants were full-time family medicine residents and 17.8% (n= 21) were training of contracted family residents. The average age of our physicians is 30.58. 55.9% (n= 66) of the physicians were female and 44.1% (n= 52) were male. 41.5% (n= 49) of the physicians worked in the Family Health Center (FHC) and 58.5% (n= 69) never worked in the FHC. The average of the physicians in the PHE total knowledge score is 51.72±6,11 out of 65 points. A low-level positive statistically significant correlation was found between PHE total knowledge score and the years spent by FMR residents as family medicine residents (rho= 0.243 p= 0.016). Physicians over the age of 40 (n= 9) had a higher PHE total knowledge score compared to the other groups. In our study, a statistically significant difference was found between the years of practice and PHE total knowledge scores of the physicians (p= 0.032). A statistically significant difference was found between the PHE total knowledge score and the status of reading the relevant guide (KW= 9.341 p= 0.025). The total PHE knowledge score of physicians with more working experience in full-time family medicine residents (6 years and above) was found to be higher than the other groups. PHE total knowledge scores were found to be higher in residents with training of contracted family residents (n= 21) compared to those with full-time family medicine residents (n= 97) (Z= -2.481 p= 0.013). Conclusion: The adequacy of family physicians' knowledge about PHE is important for preventive health services. We found that reading the relevant guide, experience and practice in the profession, working experience in FHC, and the time spent as an full-time family medicine resident have a positive effect on the level of PHE knowledge. We hope that our findings will contribute to future updates of family medicine residency training and prioritization of training content so that PHE can be standardized in the field. Keywords: Periodic health examination, Family medicine, Preventive care services, Level of knowledge