Al-Herz Waleed, Husain Khalid, Al-Khabaz Ahmed, Moussa Mohamed A A, Al-Refaee Fawaz
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, P.O. Box: 24923, Safat, 13110, Kuwait city, Kuwait.
Allergy and Clinical Immunology Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Al-Sabah Hospital, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
BMC Pediatr. 2017 Jan 11;17(1):11. doi: 10.1186/s12887-016-0773-9.
Early diagnosis of food allergies (FA) is important for a favorable prognosis. This study aimed to determine the level of awareness of FA among pediatricians in Kuwait.
A 43-item self-administered questionnaire was designed and distributed to pediatricians working at 4 government hospitals in Kuwait.
A total of 140 pediatricians completed the questionnaire, with a participation rate of 51.1% (81 males and 59 females). The mean age of participants was 40.81 years, and the mean number of years working in pediatrics was 13.94 years. The mean overall knowledge score was 22.2. The pediatricians' overall knowledge scores were found to be significantly associated with their age (older pediatricians had higher overall scores) and years of experience as a pediatrician but were independent from hospital site, gender, or rank. A multiple linear regression revealed pediatrician age and gender were the only variables that were significantly associated with the overall knowledge score. Only 16.4% of the participants answered at least 2/3 of the survey questions correctly. The questions that were correctly answered by ≤ 2/3 of the participants constituted 80% of clinical presentation questions, 66.6% of diagnostics questions, 77.7% of treatment questions, and 42.8% of prevention questions. Interestingly, among 68 pediatricians (48.5%) who determined that they felt comfortable evaluating and treating patients with FA, only 12 (17.6%) passed the questionnaire.
This survey demonstrates that there is a noteworthy deficiency of pediatricians' awareness about FA. The implementation of strategies to improve pediatricians' awareness is critical to diagnose food allergy patients early and improve their health and outcomes.
食物过敏（FA）的早期诊断对于良好的预后很重要。本研究旨在确定科威特儿科医生对FA的认知水平。
设计了一份包含43个条目的自填式问卷，并分发给在科威特4家政府医院工作的儿科医生。
共有140名儿科医生完成了问卷，参与率为51.1%（81名男性和59名女性）。参与者的平均年龄为40.81岁，儿科工作的平均年限为13.94年。总体知识得分的平均值为22.2。发现儿科医生的总体知识得分与他们的年龄（年龄较大的儿科医生总体得分较高）和儿科工作经验显著相关，但与医院地点、性别或职称无关。多元线性回归显示，儿科医生的年龄和性别是与总体知识得分显著相关的仅有的变量。只有16.4%的参与者至少正确回答了2/3的调查问题。回答正确的参与者≤2/3的问题占临床表现问题的80%、诊断问题的66.6%、治疗问题的77.7%和预防问题的42.8%。有趣的是，在确定自己对评估和治疗FA患者感到得心应手的68名儿科医生（48.5%）中，只有12名（17.6%）通过了问卷。
这项调查表明，儿科医生对FA的认知存在明显不足。实施提高儿科医生认知的策略对于早期诊断食物过敏患者并改善他们的健康和预后至关重要。
