Knowledge, attitude, practice and performance of family physicians concerning holistic management of hypertension.

Holistic medicine emphasizes looking for any patient as a whole, putting in consideration the psychological, social, cultural and environmental factors. Family Practice is a good area for applying this approach. The aim of the present study was to assess Family Physicians' knowledge, attitude, practice and performance concerning holistic management of hypertensive patients. The study included all family physicians working in 5 family medicine facilities (n=27) in Alexandria Governorate. A KAP questionnaire was designed to assess their knowledge, attitude and practice. An observation checklist was designed to check their performance with hypertensive patients. The results revealed that male physicians had better knowledge than females. None of the physicians had negative attitude towards holistic care for hypertensive patients, while male physicians had better practice level than females (81.8%, 62.5% respectively). Moreover, the differences in performance level when distributed by health facility were statistically significant, where the majority of physicians with good performance level were in El-Seyouf family health centre (FHC) (65.7%), while the majority of physicians with poor performance level were in Mohsen family health unit (FHU) (82.4%). Continuing Medical Education (EMC) and training are recommended to increase family physicians' competency and help them to develop the necessary skills.