Knowledge, attitudes, and practice around urinary tract infections of general practice assistants in the Netherlands: a cross-sectional internet survey.
Background: In Dutch general practice, urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common indication for prescribing antibiotics. General practice assistants (GPAs) are the first point of contact for patients with UTI-associated symptoms and sometimes even manage these cases without consulting a ge...
| Published in: | BMC Primary Care Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 1 - 10 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
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BioMed Central
11/3/2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=189088765&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 189088765 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 27314553 MZZU jtl: BMC Primary Care issn: 27314553 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 11/3/2025 vid: 26 iid: 1 pid: 24147 pub: BioMed Central artinfo: ui: 189088765 189088765 189088765 10.1186/s12875-025-03025-3 189088765 ppf: 1 ppct: 9 formats: tig: atl: Knowledge, attitudes, and practice around urinary tract infections of general practice assistants in the Netherlands: a cross-sectional internet survey. aug: au: Cox, Stefan M.L. Nicolaes, Luka T.F. Platteel, Tamara N. Cals, Jochen W.L. de Bont, Eefje G.P.M. affil: https://ror.org/02jz4aj89 Department of Family Medicine, CAPHRI Care and Public Health Institute, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands sug: subj: Urinary Tract Infections Diagnosis Urinary Tract Infections Drug Therapy Urinary Tract Infections Therapy Medical Assistants Psychosocial Factors Attitude of Health Personnel Evaluation Professional Knowledge Evaluation Professional Practice Evaluation Professional Competence Evaluation Family Practice Netherlands Human Female Male Adult Middle Age Cross Sectional Studies Internet Questionnaires Social Media Secondary Analysis Multiple Logistic Regression Multivariate Analysis Descriptive Statistics Urinary Tract Infections Education Urinary Tract Infections Psychosocial Factors Urinary Tract Infections Prevention and Control Comparative Studies Urinalysis Urine Specimen Collection Decision Making, Shared Cystitis Antimicrobial Stewardship Chi Square Test Fisher's Exact Test Kruskal-Wallis Test Mann-Whitney U Test Univariate Statistics Confidence Intervals Odds Ratio Confidence Urinary Tract Infections Complications Work Experiences Data Analysis Software Funding Source Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Female Male ab: Background: In Dutch general practice, urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common indication for prescribing antibiotics. General practice assistants (GPAs) are the first point of contact for patients with UTI-associated symptoms and sometimes even manage these cases without consulting a general practitioner. Nevertheless, literature on how GPAs provide and experience UTI-care is limited. Methods: To investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of Dutch GPAs regarding UTIs in general practice, we constructed a cross-sectional online survey. The survey assessed actively working Dutch GPAs' knowledge, practice, and attitude in UTI-care. Participants were recruited through social media platforms in May and June 2024. Descriptive statistics were used to perform primary data-analysis. Secondary analysis was performed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. Results: 478 of the 643 obtained responses were eligible for analysis. Results showed 95.8% of the GPAs think their UTI knowledge is sufficient. However, only one-fourth of respondents selected all correct groups at higher risk of developing a complicated UTI. Additionally, almost 70% of the respondents would perform urinalysis as a precaution if a patient hands in urine, even when UTI-associated symptoms are absent. Nine out of ten GPAs would never disregard urinalysis results. Furthermore, while GPAs indicated to apply shared decision-making often, wait-and-see policies are not regularly advised. Conclusions: GPAs seem to be unaware of their limitations regarding UTI-care, especially overvaluing the urine dipstick as a diagnostic tool. GPAs should adjust their preconceived notions of patient preferences, since patients' willingness to try non-antibiotic treatments is higher than they think. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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