Self-health promotion and prevention by general practitioners

Introduction/Aim: The aim of this research was to compare the GPs' and the general population's behaviour in health promotion, prevention and seeing a GP.
Method and results: All GPs from one district of French-speaking Belgium were asked to complete a 29-item questionnaire including questions about nutrition and sports habits, prevention acts and taking care of their own health. This questionnaire was based on the Health Survey of the Belgian Institute of Public Health. The first part of the analysis described the respondents’ answers. The second part compared the GPs’ results with the general population.
113 GPs participated in the study (response rate was 72.4%). Most GPs followed the recommendations about vaccination, cardiovascular and cancer screening, as well as alcohol and tobacco consumption. In contrast, most GPs did not follow the recommendations about nutrition. 51.0% of GPs had insufficient physical activity as compared to recommendations.
Compared to the general population, GPs scored better concerning vaccination, cardiovascular and cancer screening, alcohol and tobacco consumption. In contrast, they had a lower score concerning intensive physical activity. No significant difference was found about nutrition (except lower consumption of dairy products).
31.0% of GPs had their own GP, compared to 94.0% of the general population. When feeling ill, most GPs used self-care and 4.4% did not treat themselves at all. 90.3% of GPs used self-prescription. Having a GP reduced significantly self-prescription and increased GP visits.
Discussion and conclusions: This study showed that GPs care about prevention acts, but less about nutrition and sports habits. Seeing one’s own GP was unusual among GPs. This could lead to self-neglect and ignorance of early warning signs that that they would otherwise address if one of their patients was concerned. Promoting GPs’ self-health and encouraging them to see their own GP could improve their health condition.