[Evaluation of an informative leaflet on AIDS/HIV infection aimed at primary health care professionals in Catalonia]. / Evaluación de una hoja informativa sobre la infección por VIH/sida dirigida a los profesionales de atención primaria de Cataluña.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To assess primary care professionals' understanding and acceptance of a periodic information leaflet on HIV/AIDS. DESIGN: Crossover. SETTING: Primary care teams from the Institut Català de la Salut. PARTICIPANTS: A random sample of 300 doctors, qualified nurses and social workers. INTERVENTION A self-administered, anonymous questionnaire returned by normal post. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Questions covered the following thematic areas clinical care of people infected by HIV/AIDS and requests for diagnostic tests for infection, perception of skills in the promotion of changes in patients' sexual behaviour and drug use, providing psychological support and guidelines for integrating HIV+ children in schools and information on social resources. 60% knew the publication. Thematic areas which aroused most interest were psychological support for people affected, prevention of HIV infection in the health environment, clinical advice and diagnosis. 77% had received requests for diagnostic tests and 88% had attended infected people. CONCLUSIONS: In spite of the low reply rate (50%) and relative variability among the professionals and the health regions they came from, this first assessment enabled us to identify specific educational needs in the care and prevention of HIV/AIDS infection in the primary care framework and also to improve the distribution methods we used.