Citation

al-Faris EA. Scand. J. Prim. Health Care 1993; 11(3): 163-168.

Affiliation

Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8272646

Abstract

A health survey on 22 health topics was conducted among 300 patients, 77 doctors in primary health care centers in hospitals, and 31 journalists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during September 1990. The self-administered questionnaire had been pretested among 30 doctors and 100 patients. Male and female patients were equally balanced by gender and about 50% were students. Most doctors and journalists were male. Priority for health topics to be covered in the media was given more by doctors than journalists or patients. Group A topics were smoking, exercise, venereal disease and AIDS, hypertension and diabetes, heart and circulatory disease, contamination and environmental cleanliness, nutrition, first aid, compliance with traffic regulations, endemic diseases in Saudi Arabia, breast feeding, treatment of childhood diarrhea, and rational use of home drugs. Group B topics (acne and cancer) were considered more important by journalists, followed by patients; doctors considered group B topics least important. Group C topics (modern diagnostic techniques, new drugs, and new means of treatment) were given more importance by patients, followed by journalists. Menstrual problems were scored lowest by journalists and highest by doctors. The findings were considered tentative, pending a more representative sample. This sample of respondents was well-educated. Patients gave less priority to smoking (44%) than cancer (66%) and acne and hair loss (71.3%). Physicians gave greater emphasis to smoking (98.7%) than acne and hair loss (58.4%) and cancer (53.2%). 28.6% of doctors and 66.3% of patients gave emphasis to modern diagnostic techniques; new drugs followed a similar pattern with 69.0% of patients and 16.9% of doctors favoring this topic. New means of treatment were accorded similar priorities by doctors and patients. Quality of health services was given a priority of 72.7% among doctors, 65.3% among patients, and 58.9% among journalists.

Language: en