Pregnant and newborn health in covid-19 pandemic: Knowledge level, attitude and perspective of obstetricians & gynecologists and pediatricians in turkey (a survey-based study)

Abstract

Objective: The COVID-19 is a rapidly ongoing pandemic. 368.513 cases and 10.027 fatalities have been reported in Turkey up to this day. Pregnant women and newborns constitute a special patient group in this disease. In our study, we aimed to measure the knowledge level, attitude to protective measures, perspective of education and medicolegal issues of obstetricians-gynecologists (OB-GYN) and pediatricians on pregnant and newborn health about COVID-19. Material-Methods: A cross-sectional, online-survey consisted of 22 questions. Age, academic degree, duration of the profession in the first three questions, level of knowledge about COVID-19 in the next 14 questions, attitude to protective measures, perspective of education and medicolegal issues in the last five questions were queried. Results: The questionnaire was applied to 145 physicians. 65.5% of them were pediatricians, 34.4% were OB-GYN. The level of having adequate knowledge about COVID-19 was determined as 44% and 34.7% for OB-GYN and pediatricians. No statistically significant relationship was found between the way of acquiring knowledge and academic degree in both physician groups (p>0.05). Positive attitude of OB-GYN about preventive measures during-after the pandemic were 94%-90%, 96.8%-92.6% for pediatricians. The positive perspective of education and medicolegal measures were determined 72% and 80 % for OB-GYN, 80% and 94.7% for pediatricians. Conclusion: Current education related to clinic approach-treatment algoritms about COVID-19 on pregnant and newborn health should be increased for OB-GYN and pediatricians, legal arrangements should be made to make them feel safe.