COVI-Prim survey: Challenges for Austrian and German general practitioners during initial phase of COVID-19

  1. Andrea Siebenhofer
  2. Sebastian Huter
  3. Alexander Avian
  4. Karola Mergenthal
  5. Dagmar Schaffler-Schaden
  6. Ulrike Spary-Kainz
  7. Herbert Bachler
  8. Maria Flamm

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Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) represents a significant challenge to health care systems around the world. A well-functioning primary care system is crucial in epidemic situations as it plays an important role in the development of a system-wide response.

Methods

2,187 Austrian and German GPs answered an internet survey on preparedness, testing, staff protection, perception of risk, self-confidence, a decrease in the number of patient contacts, and efforts to control the spread of the virus in the practice during the early phase of the COVID-pandemic (3rd to 30th April).

Results

The completion rate of the questionnaire was high (90.9%). GPs gave low ratings to their preparedness for a pandemic, testing of suspected cases and efforts to protect staff. The provision of information to GPs and the perception of risk were rated as moderate. On the other hand, the participants rated their self-confidence, a decrease in patient contacts and their efforts to control the spread of the disease highly.

Conclusion

Primary care is an important resource for dealing with a pandemic like COVID-19. The workforce is confident and willing to take an active role, but needs to be provided with the appropriate surrounding conditions. This will require that certain conditions are met.

Registration

Trial registration at the German Clinical Trials Register: DRKS00021231 .

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0251736
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.24.20237743: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Ethics: The study protocol has been approved by the local ethics committee of Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany (20-619).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    After ending the survey, all data on the online platform was stored in SPSS files.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Our study has some limitations. Firstly, the questionnaire was developed in a very short time so that it could be delivered when the situation was most acute. Even though we tried to include all relevant topics, some issues may have been missed. Secondly, we could not calculate the response rate because a systematic area-wide survey was not possible in the time frame we permitted ourselves. However, the number of responses far exceeded our expectations, especially considering the difficulties that are usually encountered in recruiting GPs for research projects [35]. In addition, the questionnaire was completed by a very high percentage of participants. Thirdly, the recruitment process through regional networks and professional associations led to the heterogeneous selection of participants, which may have limited representativeness. One further limitation is that our survey was only carried out among GPs and did not involve other team members from the primary care setting. Primary care is an important and vital resource for dealing with a pandemic like COVID-19. The workforce is confident and willing to take an active role, but needs to be given the opportunity and provided with the necessary conditions to do so. As GPs work on the frontline, they should be adequately supported, both in terms of the provision of protective equipment and financial security during the active phase of the pandemic. To ensure a quick and effective response to any new crisis, general practitioners...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.24.20237743v1 on medRxiv