[The attitudes of primary care physicians towards the opening of health centers]. / Actitudes de los médicos de atención primaria hacia la puesta en marcha de los centros de salud.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To measure doctors' attitudes to the opening of Health Centres. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SITE. Primary Care services on the island of Gran Canaria. PARTICIPANTS: Doctors with tenure. MAIN MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: From a self-administered Likert type questionnaire, it could be observed that the proportion of those polled who did not reply was linked to the number who had a "Fiscal Licence" (Odds Ratio O.R. = 6.26), a ratio which did not disappear when stratified by age (O.R. = 5.88 for those less than or equal to 40 and O.R. = 3.08 for those greater than 40). The scale presented high internal consistency (Cronbach alpha 0.937), indicating favorable attitudes from doctors integrated into Health Centres and both positive and negative attitudes in doctors of a traditional cut. Those specialising in Family Medicine, those under 40 years old, those who had no other health job and those connected with Trades Unions showed more favorable attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Individual and group characteristics are linked to different attitudes. The knowledge, evaluation and behaviour components of doctor's attitudes must be improved, by involving the reference groups of both individuals and groups.