Experience with and attitudes towards HIV patients among Italian general practitioners

Italian general practitioners (GPs) were surveyed to assesstheir experience in treating HIV patients: asymptomatic HIVpatients (P-HIV) and patients with AIDS (P-AIDS). The GPs' attitudestowards treating P-HIV/P-AIDS, their feelings of competenceand their interest in improving their competence were also assessed.The survey was based on structured interviews conducted In November1992 on a stratified random sample of 900 GPs. Half the sampleanswered questions about P-AIDS, while the other half answeredquestions about P-HIV. The percentage of GPs who have treatedpatients was 10% for P-AIDS and 34% for P-HIV. They generallyjudged this experience negatively due to its dramatic nature,as well as their sense of therapeutic helplessness and the difficultiesthey have when communicating with the patients and, to somedegree, even with the hospital centres. The majority of subjectswere willing to treat patients (56% P-AIDS and 65% P-HIV). Thiswillingness leaned more towards psychological or educationalassistance than medical therapy. Discriminant analysis demonstratesthat the willing GPs were younger and felt more committed totheir profession. Once again, the majority of the intervieweesalso stated they do not feel competent enough to treat patients(78% P-AIDS and 70% P-HIV) and that they were personally interestedin improving their own skills in this area. This paper stressesthe importance of careful evaluation of the opportunity of gettingGPs more involved in dealing with P-HIV/P-AIDS.