Physicians’ attitudes, beliefs and barriers to a pulmonary rehabilitation for COPD patients in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study
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Author(s)
Aldhahir, Abdulelah Mastour
Alqahtani, Jaber
Alghamdi, saeed
Alqarni, Abdullah A
Khormi, Shahad Khalid
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This study aimed to assess physicians’ attitudes toward delivering pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and identify factors and barriers that might influence referral decisions. Between September 2021 and January 2022, a cross-sectional online survey was distributed to all physicians in Saudi Arabia. A total of 502 physicians completed the online survey, of which 62.0% (n = 312) were male. General physicians accounted for 51.2%, while internal-medicine specialists and pulmonologists accounted for 26.9% and 6.6%, respectively. Only 146 (29%) physicians had referred COPD patients to a PR program. The difference in referral rates between all specialties (p = 0.011) was statistically significant. Physicians with more years of experience were more likely to refer COPD patients to PR (p < 0.001). Moreover, a home-based PR program was preferred by 379 physicians (75.5%), and 448 (89.2%) perceived smoking cessation as an essential component of PR. Availability of PR centers (69%) was the most common barrier for not referring patients to PR. The overall referral rate was low among all physicians, owing to a lack of PR centers and trained staff. Home-based delivery was the preferred method of delivering PR, with smoking cessation as an essential component.
Date Issued
2022-05-13
Date Acceptance
2022-05-11
Citation
Healthcare, 2022, 10 (5)
ISSN
2227-9032
Publisher
MDPI
Journal / Book Title
Healthcare
Volume
10
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2022 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/)
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/)
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 904