A survey on Knowledge and attitudes of Rural Population towards the Family Physician Program in Shahrekord city

Abstract

Introduction: The family physician program has been implemented with the effort of the country's officials since 2005in the villages and towns with populations under 20,000 people to performe comfortable and convenient access to health services.The aim of this research was to study knowledge and attitude of rural population toward the family physician program in rural regions of Shahr-e Kord. Methods: In this descriptive analytic survey, 1100 individuals under the program of rural family physician in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari Province were selected by multistage sampling method. Data collected using a self-adminstrated quesstionnare which validity and reliability was confirmed by health education and social medicine experts and calculating Cronbach's alpha, respectively. Obtained data analyzed by SPSS software in two categories of descriptive and inferential statistics Results: Mean age of studied population was 34.23 years. Knowledge of participants regarding family physician program was poor, moderate, good and excellent in 30.9%,53.5%,14.5% and 3.1% of cases, respectively. Their attitude was very good,good,moderate and poor in 0.5%,25.5%,64.4% and 9.1% of cases, respectively. There was a negative significant relation between knowledge and age and positive relation between knowledge score and education. There was a positive significant relation between attitude score and age. Conclusion: Results indicated that rural population did not have the appropriate knowledge to the family physician, as well as their attitude was also moderate. . These results confirm the need for more education in improving and increasing their appropriate attitude. Keywords: Awareness; Attitude; Rural Health Services; Family Physicians.