Pre-Ramadan Consultation: Does a Physician's Religious Belief and Specialty Matter?

Background A pre-Ramadan consultation is a practical approach to optimize the care of patients with chronic conditions before the month-long fast. The present study aims to assess healthcare professionals' knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward pre-Ramadan counseling in Arab countries and assess the effects of physicians' specialty and religious beliefs on their KAP. Method An online cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess physicians’ KAP toward pre-Ramadan consultation and management of patients with pre-existing health issues before Ramadan. Each participant got three scores: (1) knowledge score, (2) attitude score, and (3) practice score. A one-way ANOVA and post hoc tests were performed to detect the differences in physicians' KAP toward pre-Ramadan consultation with their specialties and religious backgrounds. Result Most of the participants did not use pre-Ramadan consultation timely (Only two of the 200 subjects did). The mean values of the physicians' scores were as follows: the knowledge score was 7.8 out of 17, the attitude score was 2.28 out of 4, and the practice score was 4.33 out of 11. However, post hoc tests showed that family physicians were more knowledgeable regarding pre-Ramadan consultation than other specialties. Moreover, Muslim participants achieved better attitude and practice scores than non-Muslim participants. Conclusion Most of the participants did not offer pre-Ramadan consultation timely. The attitudes and practices toward pre-Ramadan consultation were statistically different between Muslim and non-Muslim doctors. The findings of this study suggest that improving physicians' pre-Ramadan consultation knowledge is imperative to optimize the care of patients before Ramadan. Moreover, improving the attitude and practice of non-Muslim physicians is required to enrich the patient-centered approach. This study was limitedby the absence of earlier literature discussing pre-Ramadan consultation, so further work is needed to cover the literature gap.