Survey of knowledge,Attitude and practice among general practitioners and internists on helicobacter pylori in peptic ulcer disease in Kerman

physicians awareness about Helicobacter pylori association with peptic ulcer disease (PUD)has changed the natural course of this prolonged disease.Eradication of this organism has declined the incidence of complications and recurrence of PUD significantly in recent years.the aim of this cross sectional study was to evaluate the level of knowledge,attitude and practice (KAP) of general practitioners(GPs) and internal medicine specialists (IMS) about H.pylori,its relationship to peptic ulcer and the management.the study was contucted on 206 practicing clinicians (179 GP,27 IMS) by using a self administered questionaire.the data were analyzed with following results.the mean age for GPs was 35.7+_10.3 years and that of IMSs was 42.7+_8.5. correct rate in KAP domains for GPs was 45.8% ,25.4%,34.6% respectively as it was 81.5%,70% and 74% for IMS.regarding the causes of PUD,49.2% of GPs and 81.5% of IMS believed in more than 50% role for H.pylori.40.2% of GPs and 81.5% of IMS pointed at the nesessity for treatment of H.pylori infection,however 77.8% of IMS and 8.9% of GPs treated the cases by a standard eradication therapy.53.7% of GPs reffered the paients to specialists.from a maximum of 40 scores,the average sore for GPs was 16.4+_2 whereeas for IMS it was 33.8+_1.9. by using pearson correlation there was a direct but weak correlation between knowledge-attitud (r=0.20) and knowledge-practice(r=0.12) for GPs.these figures for IMS were r=0.35 and r=0.46 respectively.the results of this study indicate that appropriate management of H.pylori in PUD by physician is inadequate and it needs educational attention especially for GPs