The relationship of health screening behaviors, applications and work load of family physician in İzmir province

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to investigate the health screening behaviors, practices and their relationship with workload of family physicians in İzmir province. Method: The study was conducted with face-to-face interviews with family physicians working in family health centers in 11 central districts of İzmir. It was carried out with 259 family physicians calculated using the sampling formula (n = Nt2pq / d2 (N-1) + t2pq) for 875 family physicians working in İzmir central districts in 2018. Sociodemographic data questionnaire, health screening behavior questionnaire and workload scale were applied to the participants. Findings obtained in the study were evaluated using SPSS 22.0 program for statistical analysis. In the statistical evaluation of the data, t test, ANOVA and correlation analysis were used. P <0.05 was considered significant. Results: 43.6% of the participants are women and 56.4% are men. The average age is 53.53 ± 5.96 years and 59.5% is in the 46-55 age range. 89.2% of the participants are married. 83.8% of the physicians are general practitioners and 13.1% are family medicine specialists. The average number of patients the physicians look at daily was 61, and the average number of individuals enrolled in the unit was 3430. The correct number of health screening behavior questionnaires of family medicine specialists (7.02 ± 4.10) was statistically higher than the correct number of general practitioners (4.99 ± 3.77) (p: 0.016). The health screening behavior questionnaire score average of physicians who performed cancer screening more was found to be statistically higher than the physicians who performed cancer screening less. The correct number of the health screening behavior questionnaire of the physicians who performed cancer screening more was found to be statistically higher than the physicians who performed cancer screening less. Workload scale average score; both in the group with a high average number of patients cared for daily (3.62 ± 0.46; p: <0.001) and in the group with a high average number of people enrolled in the unit (3.57 ± 0.54; p: 0.012) has been found statistically significantly higher. Conclusion: It is thought that the workload of family physicians will decrease by decreasing the number of individuals registered in family medicine units in our country. With the time to be gained from this, it can be ensured that health screenings in primary care are performed more widely and regularly. Screening tests for the early diagnosis of cancers by family physicians, who have an important role in public health, seem insufficient, and its dissemination is among the important duties of family physicians. Keywords: health screening behavior, family doctor, workload