From the Department of Health Services Management and Management (Alzahrani); from the Health Promotion and Health Education Department (Quronfulah), Faculty of Public Health and Health Informatics, Umm Al-Qura University; from the Research Department (Khogeer), The Strategic Planning, General Directorate of Health Affairs; from the Medical Genetics Unit (Khogeer), Maternity & Children Hospital, Makkah Healthcare Cluster, Ministry of Health, Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and from the Department of Health Policy and Management (Felix), University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas, United States of America.
Saudi Med J. 2022 Jun;43(6):618-625. doi: 10.15537/smj.2022.43.6.20220090.
To explore the perspectives of primary care providers (PCPs) on the low use of and barriers to routine checkups among Saudi adults.
A qualitative phenomenological study design was used. Interviews were carried out between (December 2020 and February 2021) with 19 PCPs working at 5 primary healthcare centers (PHCs) operated by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistics were performed to characterize participants, and a directed content analysis was carried out to examine major themes.
Primary care providers identified a number of barriers that contributed to a low uptake of routine checkup among Saudis. These barriers to routine checkups were classified into 3 main themes: patient-related barriers, provider-related barriers, and healthcare system-related barriers. Lack of knowledge of patients, crowdedness at PHCs, and busy staff at PHCs were the most frequently mentioned barriers that hamper the use of routine checkups.
This study presented new insight into the low use of routine checkups by obtaining the perspective of PCPs. Although results point to potential targets for interventions to increase routine checkups, additional research is recommended with a representative sample of PCPs randomly selected from the healthcare system to inform future policy and decision making related to improving use of routine care available through the Saudi Healthcare System.
探讨初级保健提供者（PCP）对沙特成年人常规检查使用率低和存在障碍的看法。
采用定性现象学研究设计。2020 年 12 月至 2021 年 2 月期间，对沙特麦加 5 家由卫生部（MOH）运营的初级保健中心（PHC）的 19 名 PCP 进行了访谈。描述性统计数据用于描述参与者的特征，并进行定向内容分析以检查主要主题。
初级保健提供者确定了一些导致沙特人常规检查使用率低的障碍。这些常规检查障碍分为 3 个主要主题：患者相关障碍、提供者相关障碍和医疗保健系统相关障碍。患者知识匮乏、PHC 拥挤以及 PHC 工作人员忙碌是阻碍常规检查使用的最常提到的障碍。
本研究通过获取 PCP 的观点，对常规检查使用率低的问题提出了新的见解。尽管结果指出了增加常规检查的潜在干预目标，但建议进行更多研究，随机选择来自医疗保健系统的代表性 PCP 样本，为改善沙特医疗保健系统提供的常规护理的使用提供信息，为未来的政策和决策提供依据。
