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Published on: September 1, 2023
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of primary care general practitioners regarding COPD inhaler education: a
Dingjin Lou1, Yiming Teng1, Jingjing Ren2
1General Practice Department, Yiwu Central Hospital, Yiwu, China.
Objectives:
To understand GPs' (General Practitioners') knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning inhalation education for COPD patients; to pinpoint key discrepancies between knowledge, attitude, and behavior; to offer evidence for designing multi-level targeted training and implementation strategies that can enhance the quality of inhaler education provided at the grassroots level.
Methods:
A cross-sectional, web-based study was conducted among GPs in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, from November to December 2025. A validated, self-administered questionnaire assessed KAP across three dimensions (knowledge, attitude, practice). Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis H test, correlation analysis, and multiple regression were used for data analysis.
Results:
Among the 213 participating GPs, mean standardized scores (0-100) were 31.2 ± 9.0 for knowledge, 84.1 ± 12.5 for attitude, and 41.0 ± 15.4 for practice. Lower knowledge scores were observed among GPs with junior professional titles (28.4 ± 9.0) and those with less than 5 years of clinical experience (27.1 ± 9.1). Multivariate regression showed that knowledge was independently associated with practice behavior (standardized β = 0.508, P < 0.001).
Conclusion:
This study indicates that GPs in Yiwu showed positive attitudes but insufficient knowledge and practice in COPD inhaler education, with a clear attitude-practice gap. These findings may support the development of targeted strategies to improve GPs' engagement in inhaler technique education for COPD patients.
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