PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS' UTILIZATION OF TYPE 2 DIABETES SCREENING GUIDELINES IN SAUDI ARABIA

Study aim: This study aims to assess primary care physicians’ utilization of type 2 diabetes screening guidelines and referrals to behavioural interventions in Al-Jouf, KSA. Methods: This study adopted a retrospective longitudinal survey-based study design. In this study, the setting is primary health care setting in Al-Jouf, Saudi Arabia. We included primary healthcare physicians. A pre-designed questionnaire was used for data collection and data was managed and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. Results: The study included 395 physician whose age ranged from 25 to 58 years. Of all, 39% of physicians prefer using HbA1C and fasting blood glucose for screening pre-diabetes. The majority (80.3%) of physicians’ screening decisions are influenced by the screening guidelines. ADA (46.3%), and both USPSTF and ADA (46.6%) were the physicians’ most common preferences for diabetes screening. Nearly half of respondents (50.9%) use screening guidelines in 70-90% of their diabetes screening encounters. However, 39% and 37.7% reported utilizing USPSTF and ADA screening guidelines in 70-90% of their encounters, respectively. Conclusion: Our study shows that the majority of primary healthcare physicians are adherent to the diabetes screening guidelines in their practice. However, older doctors, males, those working in rural areas and those receiving highest and lowest number of visits per week require further awareness in order to increase their adherence to diabetes screening guidelines.