Knowledge and Attitudes of Family Physicians Regarding Levothyroxine Use

Dursun Çadirci, Şenay Koçakoğlu, Mehmet Ali Eren

Keywords: Attitude, hypothyroidism, knowledge levothyroxine.

Background:
Hypothyroidism is a common disorder in society. In addition, follow-up and treatment can be done in primary care. The aim of the study is to measure the knowledge and attitudes of family physicians working in primary health care institutions about the use of levothyroxine.

Research questions:
Do primary care physicians have sufficient knowledge about the use of levothyroxine?

Method:
This prospective study was conducted with 102 family physicians from family health centers in Şanlıurfa province central districts. A questionnaire, created by the researchers, consisting of eight questions; 7 multiple choice and one open-ended, was used for measurement. Statistical analyzes were performed with SPSS version 22.0. Categorical data between groups were compared with the Chi-square test, and those that were constantly variable were compared with the Student T-test.

Results:
Of the physicians participating in the study, 21 (20.6%) were female, 81 (79.4%) were male, and the mean age was 36.9±8.0 (28-66) years. Working duration as a family physician was 6.1±3.3 years and 16 (15.7%) of the participants reported that they had never prescribed levothyroxine. Two-thirds of the participants correctly answered the relationship between levothyroxine and food intake and 36.3% of them correctly answered the difference of levothyroxine formulations’ that affect their absorption. Very few of them gave the correct answer to the question of how to start hypothyroidism treatment in patients over 60 years of age or with coronary artery disease.

Conclusions:
This study results revealed that the training needs of family physicians on hypothyroidism treatment.

Points for discussion: