Survey of knowledge, attitudes and practices for tuberculosis among general practitioners.

Setting: Representative sample survey of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) for tuberculosis among private general practitioners (GPs) in 1993 in Korea,

Objective: To investigate the KAP of general practitioners on the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis.

Design: Questionnaire surveys were performed for 923 private general practitioners through 29 health centres.

Results: 49% of GPs considered that the Korean tuberculosis situation is not serious. 54% were worried about infection from patients. 47% answered that BCG vaccination causes untoward reactions with no or limited effectiveness. 47% considered the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) unfavourably. Over 50% did not consider sputum examination essential in case finding/diagnosis, and 75% in monitoring of treatment response. For initial treatment of active tuberculosis, only 11% were prescribing the current Korean NTP's six-month standard regimen. 73% were giving currently non-recommendable regimens, and 16% unacceptably bad regimens. However, this situation could be improved, as 80% of GPs expressed the wish to acquire knowledge.

Conclusion: Many misunderstandings were found in the field of transmission, BCG vaccination and the performance of the NTP; sputum examinations were considerably neglected in case finding/diagnosis and treatment monitoring. As for treatment, 89% were giving either non-recommendable regimens or bad regimens.