title: General practitioners' encounters in rural and urban care centers in Isfahan with gynecological/obstetric and pediatric diseases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  General practitioners should be competent to be accountable for patients' needs, but they do not acquire core competencies during education in medical schools.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study was aimed at determine the most usual obstetric and gynecological as well as pediatric diseases in rural and urban care centers in Isfahan province.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a cross-sectional descriptive study which was done in Isfahan province in 2011. Sixty-four physicians (general practitioners) in rural and urban health care centers in Isfahan province participated in this study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed valid and reliable questionnaires for gynecological/obstetric and pediatric diseases. These questionnaires included some demographic data and diseases of each category (according to general medicine curriculum). Scales 1-5 for each disease referral times was determined respectively as: Rare, sometimes, weekly to monthly, daily to weekly and daily.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data were descriptively analyzed by SPSS 11.5(SPSS Inc. in Chicago).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nearly 43.7% of participants were male. The mean age of participants was 39.0 ± 7.0 and their mean working experience was 11.3 ± 5.9 years. The highest referral times' score in rural and urban care centers in gynecological and obstetric group was vaginal discharge; in pediatrics, it was the common cold.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, the extent to which general practitioners encountered different gynecological/obstetric and pediatric diseases in rural and urban care centers in Isfahan province was determined. Although, these data are useful for decision makers to establish medical core curriculum, other factors such as seasonal load of diseases should also be observed to determine the differences between rural and urban care centers in most usual diseases of women and children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Athar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Omid
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Batool
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eghbali
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Applied Physiology Research Center, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Shaghayegh Haghjooy
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Javanmard
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Vahid
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ashoorion
keywords: Care centers; general practitioners; gynecological and obstetric; pediatrics; rural and urban