Volume 26, Issue 128, October 2022

Assessment of physician awareness and attitudes toward recognizing symptoms related to myeloproliferative neoplasms

Bader Alahmari¹, Meshari Almotairi^2♦, Khalid Bin Yousef², Majid Alharbi², Mohammed Alanazi², Mehab Abdullah², Aamir Omair³

¹Department of Oncology, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
²College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
³Department of Medical Education, Research Unit, College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: The level of awareness and attitudes of primary care physicians toward diagnosing myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) is widely unexplored and many physicians overlook the symptoms of MPNs. Identifying MPN related symptoms by the primary care physician can lead to early recognition of the disease and prevent MPN related complications. Methods: In this cross-sectional study data was collected via a survey questionnaire from 99 primary care physicians (family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine) within the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA) facilities in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The aim is to assess the primary care physicians’ awareness of MPN related symptoms. Results: There is a statistically significant difference in the level of awareness of MPN symptoms between physicians in each department. Emergency physicians scored the lowest mean score (3.21+0.22) and failed to identify most of the MPN-related symptoms whereas most Internal Medicine physicians (3.46+0.34) and Family Medicine physicians (3.45 +0.34) were able to identify most of the symptoms. Conclusion: Many physicians failed to recognize disease specific symptoms but were able to identify “B” symptoms. A great proportion of physician failed to recognize splenomegaly related symptoms which are associated with poor disease outcome. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of educating primary care physicians of the presentation of these disorders which can prevent unnecessary hospital costs and achieve better patient outcomes.

Keywords: Myeloproliferative, neoplasms, cancer, awareness, primary care physicians

Medical Science, 2022, 26, ms392e2470

PDF

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v26i128/ms392e2470

Published: 02 October 2022