Family doctors' involvement with families in Estonia.
BACKGROUND
Family doctors should care for individuals in the context of their family. Family has a powerful influence on health and illness and family interventions have been shown to improve health outcomes for a variety of health problems. The aim of the study was to investigate the Estonian family doctors' (FD) attitudes to the patients' family-related issues in their work: to explore the degree of FDs involvement in family matters, their preparedness for management of family-related issues and their self-assessment of the ability to manage different family-related problems.


METHODS
A random sample (n = 236) of all FDs in Estonia was investigated using a postal questionnaire. Altogether 151 FDs responded to the questionnaire (response rate 64%), while five of them were excluded as they did not actually work as FDs.


RESULTS
Of the respondents, 90% thought that in managing the health problems of patients FDs should communicate and cooperate with family members. Although most of the family doctors agreed that modifying of the health damaging risk factors (smoking, alcohol and drug abuse) of their patients and families is their task, one third of them felt that dealing with these problems is ineffective, or perceived themselves as poorly prepared or having too little time for such activities. Of the respondents, 58% (n = 83) were of the opinion that they could modify also relationship problems.


CONCLUSIONS
Estonian family doctors are favourably disposed to involvement in family-related problems, however, they need some additional training, especially in the field of relationship management.
Oona
Marje
M
Dept of Polyclinic and Family Medicine, University of Tartu, Puusepa 1a, 50406 Tartu, Estonia. marje.oona@ut.ee
Kalda
Ruth
R
Lember
Margus
M
Maaroos
Heidi-Ingrid
HI
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003376:Counseling; D004957:Estonia; D005192:Family Health; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012655:Self-Evaluation Programs; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires