Knowledge, attitude, and practice of travel medicine among primary health care physicians in the Cluster-1, Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Travel medicine deals with prevention and management of health problems of travelers to avoid or reduce the risk of avoidable illnesses. Primary healthcare physicians are the key individuals to provide the same. The objective of current study was to explore the level of knowledge, attitude, and current practical application of travel medicine among primary health care physicians serving in the Riyadh Health Cluster, Saudi Arabia. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study among 210 primary healthcare physicians serving in Riyadh Health Cluster was conducted using a paper-based self-administered questionnaire collecting information on socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge, attitude as well as practice of travel medicine. RESULTS: The majority of study participants were females (117, 55.7%) and 63% (n = 133) were non-Saudi physicians. More than 30% that is 66 participants had clinical experience of less than 5 years and around 67% (i.e., 141) participants were serving at the designation of registrar/senior registrar. One hundred sixty-seven participants (79.5%) had ever provided health advice to the travelers. Majority of the study participants had gained information on the travel medicine through Ministry of Health guidelines (66%). Nearly 11.4% participants were not sure about the cause of occurrence of typhoid infection. As reported by 30.5%, travelers never really sought advice on the travel insurance. Nearly 79.5% participants reported to have provided post-travel consultation for diarrhea, followed by respiratory infection (45.2%), fever (42%), and skin problems (21%). CONCLUSION: The knowledge, attitude, and practice of travel medicine among primary healthcare physicians was found to be sub-optimal in Riyadh.