Analyze Mastery of Atrial Fibrillation Related Knowledge and Its Influencing Factors among Grassroots Medical Staffs

Abstract

Background With the aging of the population, the prevalence of atrial fibrillation is increasing year by year. As the "gatekeepers" of community residents' health, grassroots medical staff with a high level of knowledge about atrial fibrillation is particularly important for standardized management of atrial fibrillation. Objective To analyze the mastery of atrial fibrillation-related knowledge among grassroots medical staff in Fengxian District, Shanghai and its influencing factors, thus, providing a theoretical basis for subsequent training work. Methods This study is a cross-sectional survey study. From June to July 2021, a systematic sampling method was used to select 1 393 grassroots medical staff as the research objects including general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, public health physicians and other medical staff (imaging technology/physician, laboratory technician, traditional Chinese medicine doctor and so on) from 21 community health service centers in Fengxian District, Shanghai. This study used a self-developed electronic questionnaire to investigate them. The contents of the questionnaire included general information and knowledge related to atrial fibrillation (basic knowledge about atrial fibrillation, knowledge about anticoagulant therapy and knowledge about rhythm/heart rate control) . This study compared the mastery of atrial fibrillation-related knowledge among grassroots medical staff in different positions, and used univariate Logistic regression, ordinal multiple classification or binary Logistic regression to analyze the influencing factors of grassroots medical staff's mastery of atrial fibrillation-related knowledge. Results A total of 1 383 valid questionnaires were recovered, and the valid questionnaire recovery rate was 99.28%. Among 1 383 grassroots medical staff, 506 cases (36.59%) were general practitioners. 54.88% (759/1 383) , 97.69% (1 351/1 383) and 69.63% (963/1 383) failed in the basic knowledge about atrial fibrillation, knowledge about anticoagulation and knowledge about heart rhythm/heart rate control, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in the scores of atrial fibrillation knowledge, anticoagulation knowledge and heart rhythm/heart rate control knowledge among grassroots medical staff in different positions (P<0.05) . Ordinal multiple classification or binary Logistic regression analysis showed that the position as a general practitioner and professional title were the influencing factors of score in the basic knowledge related to atrial fibrillation among grassroots medical staff (P<0.05) . Age and position as a general practitioner were the influencing factors of whether the score in knowledge related to anticoagulation therapy reaches the pass level or above among grassroots medical staff (P<0.05) . The position as a general practitioner, received standardized training and reading the atrial fibrillation guideline within one year were the influencing factors of the score in knowledge related to heart rhythm/heart rate control among grassroots medical staff (P<0.05) . Conclusion The mastery of knowledge about atrial fibrillation among grassroots medical staff is generally not ideal, especially the lack of knowledge about anticoagulation therapy. Atrial fibrillation related knowledge training should be especially strengthened for grassroots medical staff who are not general practitioners, have low professional titles, and have not received standardized training.

Keywords

• atrial fibrillation|primary health care|medical staff|knowledge|cognition|root cause analysis|shanghai