Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) Study of Egyptian physicians towards HIV infection: a multicentre study

Introduction: In Egypt, there is a paucity of new data regarding awareness of HIV/AIDS among physicians. This study aimed to assess the level of awareness, attitude, practice, and knowledge of a sample of Egyptian physicians regarding HIV regarding natural history, epidemiology, and virology, method of transmission, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, prevention, and management.

Methodology: Sixty-eight Egyptian physicians were enrolled in an observational analytic multicenter cross-sectional KAP study in Egyptian tertiary health care facilities covering different localities, including New Valley University, Assiut University, South Valley University, Helwan University, Alexandria University, Aswan University, and Al-Azhar University.

Results: The attitude of physicians towards the privacy of persons living with HIV, was the one with the highest percentage 85.3%. On the other hand, respondents think that only 25% of physicians do not stigmatize HIV patients. Moreover, only 25% of the study group do not stigmatize persons living with HIV. The highest proportion of favorable practice was 39.7% and the lowest was 17.6%. With regard to their knowledge about HIV, the lowest proportion of correct answers to a question was 4.4%, and the highest proportion was 92.6%. Most of the enrolled physicians were found to have a moderate knowledge score, 49/68 (72%). There was a significant difference between different specialties regarding knowledge scores.

Conclusions: There are some knowledge gaps among a sample of Egyptian physicians with regard to HIV/AIDS. In addition, Egyptian physicians may have a moderate degree of undesirable attitude and practice toward HIV/AIDS.