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Article: How did general practitioners protect themselves, their family, and staff during the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong?

TitleHow did general practitioners protect themselves, their family, and staff during the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong?
Authors
KeywordsRegional Index: Asia
China
Eurasia
Far East
Hong Kong
Issue Date2004
PublisherB M J Publishing Group. The Journal's web site is located at http://jech.bmjjournals.com/
Citation
Journal Of Epidemiology And Community Health, 2004, v. 58 n. 3, p. 180-185 How to Cite?
AbstractContext: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerging infectious disease and how trie frontline community doctors respond to it is not known. Objectives: To explore the impact of SARS on general practitioners (GPs) in Hong Kong. Design: A cross sectional survey. Setting: Community based primary care clinics. Participants: 183 family medicine tutors affiliated with a local university. Postal survey sent to all tutors with a 74.8% response rate. Main outcome measures: Change of clinical behaviour and practices during the epidemic; anxiety level of primary care doctors. Results: All agreed SARS had changed their clinical practices. Significant anxiety was found in family doctors. Three quarters of respondents recalled requesting more investigations while a quarter believed they had over-prescribed antibiotics. GPs who were exposed to SARS or who had worked in high infection districts were less likely to quarantine themselves (10.8% versus 33.3%; p<0.01; 6.5% versus 27.5%; p<0.01 respectively). Exposure to SARS, the infection rates in their working district, and anxiety levels had significant impact on the level of protection or prescribing behaviour. Conclusion: The clinical practice of GPs changed significantly as a result of SARS. Yet, those did not quarantine themselves suggesting other factors may have some part to play. As failure to apply isolation precautions to suspected cases of SARS was one major reason for its spread, a contingency plan from the government to support family doctors is of utmost importance. Interface between private and public sectors are needed in Hong Kong to prepare for any future epidemics.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/132459
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 4.9
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 2.091
PubMed Central ID
ISI Accession Number ID
References

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorWong, WCWen_HK
dc.contributor.authorLee, Aen_HK
dc.contributor.authorTsang, KKen_HK
dc.contributor.authorWong, SYSen_HK
dc.date.accessioned2011-03-28T09:24:46Z-
dc.date.available2011-03-28T09:24:46Z-
dc.date.issued2004en_HK
dc.identifier.citationJournal Of Epidemiology And Community Health, 2004, v. 58 n. 3, p. 180-185en_HK
dc.identifier.issn0143-005Xen_HK
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/132459-
dc.description.abstractContext: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerging infectious disease and how trie frontline community doctors respond to it is not known. Objectives: To explore the impact of SARS on general practitioners (GPs) in Hong Kong. Design: A cross sectional survey. Setting: Community based primary care clinics. Participants: 183 family medicine tutors affiliated with a local university. Postal survey sent to all tutors with a 74.8% response rate. Main outcome measures: Change of clinical behaviour and practices during the epidemic; anxiety level of primary care doctors. Results: All agreed SARS had changed their clinical practices. Significant anxiety was found in family doctors. Three quarters of respondents recalled requesting more investigations while a quarter believed they had over-prescribed antibiotics. GPs who were exposed to SARS or who had worked in high infection districts were less likely to quarantine themselves (10.8% versus 33.3%; p<0.01; 6.5% versus 27.5%; p<0.01 respectively). Exposure to SARS, the infection rates in their working district, and anxiety levels had significant impact on the level of protection or prescribing behaviour. Conclusion: The clinical practice of GPs changed significantly as a result of SARS. Yet, those did not quarantine themselves suggesting other factors may have some part to play. As failure to apply isolation precautions to suspected cases of SARS was one major reason for its spread, a contingency plan from the government to support family doctors is of utmost importance. Interface between private and public sectors are needed in Hong Kong to prepare for any future epidemics.en_HK
dc.languageengen_US
dc.publisherB M J Publishing Group. The Journal's web site is located at http://jech.bmjjournals.com/en_HK
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Epidemiology and Community Healthen_HK
dc.subjectRegional Index: Asiaen_US
dc.subjectChinaen_US
dc.subjectEurasiaen_US
dc.subjectFar Easten_US
dc.subjectHong Kongen_US
dc.titleHow did general practitioners protect themselves, their family, and staff during the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong?en_HK
dc.typeArticleen_HK
dc.identifier.emailWong, WCW:wongwcw@hku.hken_HK
dc.identifier.authorityWong, WCW=rp01457en_HK
dc.description.naturelink_to_OA_fulltexten_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1136/jech.2003.015594en_HK
dc.identifier.pmid14966227-
dc.identifier.pmcidPMC1732708-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-1342280389en_HK
dc.relation.referenceshttp://www.scopus.com/mlt/select.url?eid=2-s2.0-1342280389&selection=ref&src=s&origin=recordpageen_HK
dc.identifier.volume58en_HK
dc.identifier.issue3en_HK
dc.identifier.spage180en_HK
dc.identifier.epage185en_HK
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000188970300004-
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdomen_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridWong, WCW=25230779000en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridLee, A=8305464500en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridTsang, KK=26654578600en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridWong, SYS=7404590959en_HK
dc.identifier.issnl0143-005X-

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