Illness behaviour of general practitioners—a cross-sectional survey

<span class="paragraphSection"><div class="boxTitle">Abstract</div><div class="boxTitle">Background</div>International guidelines recommend that physicians should be registered with a general practitioner (GP) and should avoid self-treatment. Adherence to these recommendations is mixed.<div class="boxTitle">Aims</div>To describe illness behaviour and chronic medical conditions of GPs in Germany.<div class="boxTitle">Methods</div>Cross-sectional, observational questionnaire study. We contacted 1000 GPs by mail in April 2014. We asked about registration with a GP, chronic conditions and self-treatment. We undertook descriptive statistical analysis and analysed associations using <span style="font-style:italic;">t</span>-tests and chi-square test.<div class="boxTitle">Results</div>Two hundred and eighty-five responses (29%) were eligible for analysis. Nineteen per cent of GPs were registered as patients of a GP, 58% reported at least one chronic condition, 68% disclosed self-diagnosis and 60% self-treatment. Self-therapy for chronic conditions was inversely correlated with subjective severity of the disease (<span style="font-style:italic;">r</span> = −0.159; <span style="font-style:italic;">P</span> < 0.05).<div class="boxTitle">Conclusions</div>The high rates of self-treatment and the low rate of registration with a GP of German GPs are in contrast to international guideline recommendations. Further research is needed to analyse specific reasons.</span>

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