Evaluation of Fars Province General Physicians' Awareness and Attitude about Epidemiology

Background: Epidemiology is the base of public health and preventive medicine. This study was conducted to identify the rate of awareness and attitude of 1000 Fars General Physicians about Epidemiology Science in 2010 Methods: The present study performed as cross-sectional on working general physicians (GPs) in 20 of Fars provinces in 1-Stage Cluster sampling. In the study, factors such as age, gender, university of graduation, marital status, the length of time since graduation, working place's type with different levels of awareness and attitude, has been evaluated. Results: In terms of awareness, 55.4% of physicians had low, 41.7% had average and 2.9% had desirable awareness and in terms of attitude, 83.4% had low, 16.3% had average and 0.3% had a desirable attitude. Then significant statistical association between levels of awareness and attitude and age, gender, university of graduation, the length of the time since graduation, marital status and working place variables was observed. Conclusions: Considering the unfavorable results of awareness and attitude, paying more fundamental attention to detailed knowledge of epidemiology should be considered by health policy makers through a documented plan as well as continuous while in service training.