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Volume 4, Issue 3 (Suppl) Health Care: Current Reviews
ISSN: 2375-4273 HCCR, an open access journal
Page 30
Notes:
Primary Care Congress 2016
September 19-20, 2016
conferenceseries.com
September 19-20, 2016 Phoenix, USA
2nd Annual Congress and Medicare Expo on
Primary Care & General Pediatrics
Attitudes of paediatricians and general practitioners in diagnosing hypertension in children
Ayedh A Alhajri
Kuwait University, Kuwait
Introduction: Hypertension is a major long-term health condition and it is the leading cause of premature death among adults
throughout the world. Based on the use of ≥95th percentile to define hypertension, it would be expected that the prevalence of
hypertension in children would be approximately 5%. Paediatric hypertension is considered as an under-diagnosed problem
worldwide. This survey study was conducted to explore the extent of this issue in Kuwait.
Subjects & Methods: A questionnaire, having a brief case history of a child with increased blood pressure was prepared. The case
history was followed by 15 true/false/I do not know questions directed to the attending physician. The questionnaire also solicited
information on the physician’s current position and the length of his/her experience. The questionnaire was distributed to general
practitioners working in 15 primary health care centers; all health districts in Kuwait were included. The same questionnaire was
distributed to pediatricians working in the six main hospitals in Kuwait. Only assistant registrars and registrars were included. The
questionnaire was collected in person from all participants of both groups.
Results: A total of 127 physicians responded to the questionnaire. The responders were 69 (54%) male physicians and 58 (46%)
female physicians. 44 (34.6%) of the responders were general practitioners and 13 (10.2%) were family medicine physicians working
in polyclinics through-out the country (group A). 70 (55.2%) of the responders were paediatricians working in the six main hospitals
in Kuwait. In terms of years of experience, 20 (15.7%) participants have five years or less, 35 (27.6%) have 5 to 10 years and 72 (56.7%)
have more than 10 years of experience. No statistical significance were found in the responses of both groups except in two questions
(Q2 and Q11, p values were 0.025 and 0.0038 respectively). Q2 and Q11 reflected the knowledge of proper paediatric cuff size and
proper method of diagnosing hypertension in children respectively.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that paediatric hypertension is likely to be under-diagnosed by general practitioners due to lack of
both knowledge and clinical skills in measuring blood pressure. This mandates an extensive education programmes to train general
practitioners.
Biography
Ayedh A Alhajri is a first class honour Medical Student at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He is a Research Assistant at Kuwait University, Faculty of
Medicine, Department of Pediatrics. He is the Founder of Kuwait Medical Students Team in Ireland which is functional since April 2014. He has contributed in two
papers about Pediatrics so far.
Ayedh A Alhajri, Health Care: Current Reviews 2016, 4:3(Suppl)