A survey on the awareness of digestive system injury caused by coronavirus disease 2019 in gastroenterologists / 中华消化杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the awareness of digestive system injury caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in gastroenterologists.Methods:From February 21 to 23 in 2020, the electronic questionnaire was used to learn about the condition of the basic knowledge of COVID-19 and awareness of digestive system injury caused by COVID-19 among the gastroenterologists across the country. Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis.Results:A total of 2 216 gastroenterologists from 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities nationwide completed the survey. 99.7% (2 209/2 216) of gastroenterologists stated that they had read the COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment guidelines. The percentages of physicians who knew clearly about the diagnostic criteria of suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 was 34.9% (774/2 216) and 39.4% (874/2 216), respectively. The percentages of physician who gave the right answers of COVID-19 detectable methods and pulmonary imaging was 68.4% (1 516/2 216) and 71.6% (1 586/2 216), respectively. The percentages of correct answers of digestive system injury caused by COVID-19 were physicians and chief physicians was 30.9% (134/433) in residents, 33.9% (234/691) attending physicians, 32.4% (213/657) associated chief physicians and 34.9% (152/435) chief physicians, respectively, however there were no statistically significant differences among physicians with different professional titles ( χ2=6.60, P> 0.05). 95.6% (2 119/2 216) of gastroenterologists believed that probiotics could effectively improve bowel function, and 94.0% (2 082/2 216) of gastroenterologists considered that enteral nutrition support could improve patients’ prognosis. Conclusions:The knowledge and dynamic progress of the digestive system injury caused by COVID-19 are still insufficiently grasped by gastroenterologists in China. So it is necessary to carry out systematic and pertinent training programmes for them.