Illness behaviour of general practitioners-a cross-sectional survey

International guidelines recommend that physicians should be registered with a general practitioner (GP) and should avoid self-treatment. Adherence to these recommendations is mixed.

To describe illness behaviour and chronic medical conditions of GPs in Germany.

Cross-sectional, observational questionnaire study. We contacted 1000 GPs by mail in April 2014. We asked about registration with a GP, chronic conditions and self-treatment. We undertook descriptive statistical analysis and analysed associations using t-tests and chi-square test.

Two hundred and eighty-five responses (29%) were eligible for analysis. Nineteen per cent of GPs were registered as patients of a GP, 58% reported at least one chronic condition, 68% disclosed self-diagnosis and 60% self-treatment. Self-therapy for chronic conditions was inversely correlated with subjective severity of the disease (r = -0.159; P < 0.05).

The high rates of self-treatment and the low rate of registration with a GP of German GPs are in contrast to international guideline recommendations. Further research is needed to analyse specific reasons.