Knowledge, attitude and behaviour of general practitioners in Shanghai during the pandemic of COVID-19: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: To understand the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of general practitioners (GPs) towards COVID-19 and to provide evidence for improved prevention and control measures against the pandemic. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1018 GPs in Shanghai from 21 February to 2 March 2020 using the WeChat platform. METHODS: Stratified random cluster sampling was performed according to the regional division of urban, urban–rural fringe and rural areas. This study used a self-designed mobile questionnaire. The questionnaire collected information on knowledge, attitudes and behaviours regarding COVID-19 prevention and control. RESULTS: A total of 989 questionnaires were declared valid. The average scores of GPs’ knowledge, attitude and behaviour towards COVID-19 were 6.14±1.42 (range 0–10), 13.59±4.42 (range 0–25) and 7.82±1.53 (range 0–10), respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the knowledge score of male GPs was lower than that of female GPs (p=0.002). In addition, the ‘attitude’ score of female GPs was higher than that of male GPs (p=0.004). The ‘behaviour’ score of GPs in urban areas was lower than that of GPs in urban–rural fringe areas (p<0.001). The higher the knowledge score, the higher the behavioural score was observed to be (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The scores of knowledge, attitude and behaviour of Shanghai GPs towards COVID-19 were limited at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. As a hopeful measure, the early implementation of proper training programmes for GPs in times of crisis will contribute to disease control and prevention. Lessons learnt from the current pandemic will hopefully help GPs handle similar future challenges and potential novel pandemics.