Assessing knowledge of scabies among physicians working in primary health care setting

Outbreaks of scabies have been documented in 2018 among school children in Western and Central regions of Saudi Arabia. There have been concerns about the awareness of healthcare providers.

The objective of the current study was to evaluate the knowledge of primary health care physicians about scabies diagnosis and management, as well as the factors influencing such knowledge.

An observational cross-sectional study was conducted between September and October 2019. The target population was physicians working in primary care centers in Riyadh. Filling either hard or soft copies of the study questionnaire was used for data collection. The knowledge score was calculated from the answers for 16 knowledge questions.

A total of 216 physicians were included in the final analysis, mainly general practitioners (56.5%) and registrars (31.5%). The overall knowledge score was 67.5%± 13.9%. The highest level of knowledge was associated with age susceptibility (80.6%), followed by clinical presentation and diagnosis (78.1%), mode of transmission (75.8%), pathogen cause & incubation period (66.9%), and finally management (61.7%). In multivariate logistic regression models, a shorter time since last time information about scabies was reviewed was significantly associated with better knowledge (defined as score > median), with odds ratio = 5.84 (95% confidence interval = 2.43-14.01). Similarly, older age and higher qualification were significantly associated with better knowledge.

As expected, the knowledge about scabies among primary care physicians was generally inadequate. The current findings highlight the need for educational and training programs lead by health care authorities, targeting these physicians.