Impact of an educational meeting on knowledge and awareness of general practitioners on upper respiratory tract infections

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate knowledge ofprimary care physicians regarding the use of antibioticsfor the upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and thespecific outcomes of a health educational meeting in twocities using a self -administered questionnaire.Materials and methods: A standard questionnaire wasfilled by the participants before and after the meeting. Thequestionnaire had seven questions about definition, epidemiology,diagnosis and treatment of URTIs. The knowledgeand approaches of practitioners concern about diagnosisand antibiotic use in URTIs were evaluated. Theproportion of overall satisfied answers before and afterthe meeting was compared.Results: Totally 110 primary care physicians joined intothe study. Before the educational meeting, more than30% of participants stated that the at least 50% of thecausative agents of the URTIs are bacteria. Eighty-eightpercent declared that anaerobes or Neisseria are not theplausible causative agents in URTIs. Only 14% of them indicatedthat procaine penicillin is the primary agent for thetreatment of Streptococcus pyogenes. On the other hand,95% of survey participants considered that penicillin isthe first choice for URTI with Beta-hemolytic Streptococcus.After the educational meeting, most of participants’knowledge showed a significant improvement in knowledge.There were a significantly more correct answers toall questions after the educational meeting compared tobefore the meeting. (27.7% of doctors before vs.92.7%after, p