Abstract
Introduction: General practitioners have a special place in the system of preventive care. They are closest to the patients, directly apply preventive strategies into individual care, and implement preventive programs.
Prevention principally includes biannual systematic preventive examinations, screening programs, and the occasional intervention of risk factors. The Committee of the Society of General Practice in the Czech Republic (ČLS JEP) decided to make a representative sociological survey in order to examine the above issues from the perspective of Czech patients.
Objectives and methods: The aim of the research was to find out the attitudes of the Czech population towards their own health, especially towards preventive examinations, colorectal cancer screening, as well as to examine the stance of citizens on individual aspects of practice operations, such as the possibility of making appointments and using various methods of communication. The research was designed in accordance with independent sociological methodology.
The field survey was carried out in the technique of standardized controlled interviews of the interviewer with the respondent. The computer program SASDM 1. 4. 10 did the statistical data processing.
Results: More than half of all registered patients visit their general practitioner at least once a year. The survey documented patient interest in preventive examinations, as well as an active approach of general practitioners towards preventive care.
From the perspective of the patients, the standard of practice operations is on the rise. General practitioners are a crucial, and, currently, irreplaceable source of information for the patients in the screening of the colon and rectum.