General Practitioners and Patients' Disease in Isfahan: One Step toward Social Accountability

Introduction: Graduated students in healthcare should be competent to be accountable for social needs. This study aimed to determine the most frequent patients' diseases in Isfahan. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 64 physicians (general practitioners) in Isfahan. Data gathering was done through valid and reliable questionnaires for determining the frequency of pediatrics, surgical, gynecologic and internal diseases referring GP. Referral times for each disease was determined in 5-point likert scale (rare, sometimes, weekly to monthly, daily to weekly and daily). Results: 28 male and 36 female physicians with mean age of 39.0±7.0 and mean experience of 11.3±5.9 years completed questionnaires. The highest referral times score in measured different areas were common cold, nonsurgical abdominal pain, vaginal discharge and diabetes mellitus respectively. The lowest scores were ariboflavinsis, abscess of pancreas, coriocarcinoma and sarcoidosis respectively. Conclusion: In this study, encounter rate of general practitioners in Isfahan to different diseases was determined. Although these data are useful for decision makers to plan curriculum, but determination of other factors such as severity of less common diseases are necessary.