Abstract

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ATTITUDE TOWARDS PERFORMANCE OF MEDICAL CHECKUPS: A SURVEY FROM EASTERN PROVINCE OF SAUDI ARABIA

AlBaloushi. NN, AlOmair.SA, Sayed Ibrahim Ali


Objectives: Routine checkups are important in the early detection of disease. Many factors influence the performance of medical checkups. The aim of our study was to detect the factors that affect the performance of routine medical checkups in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia. Material and Methods: This study analyzed observational, descriptive cross-sectional data. Our sample includes male and female adults over the age of 20 years from different cities in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia in February 2015. The sample size was 721, divided among the 9 cities of the Eastern province. Our data was collected via a questionnaire, which was distributed randomly among the population. Results: The study sample consisted of 28.4% males and 71.6% females. The study suggested that only 22.5% of the sample perform routine medical checkups while the majority of them (77.5%) do not perform checkups. Precipitating factors, age, gender and marital status have an effect on the performance of routine checkups. However, education, financial status and occupation appeared to have no effect on performing regular checkups. Reasons for performing routine checkups were also analyzed. Most people performed routine checkups out of personal conviction and belief in its benefits. The commonest reasons cited for avoiding routine checkups were not having enough time and a perception of medical check-ups being a long and boring process. Conclusion: We concluded that in order to increase the performance of medical checkups, the personal conviction and belief of the population should be increased first by spreading awareness.