Hemorrhoidal Disease among doctors from Grade-A Tertiary Hospitals in Big Cities of China: results from web-based doctors as patients survey

Abstract

Abstract Background Doctors are at high risk of developing hemorrhoidal disease (HD), but it’s still not clear that how much doctors aware of this problem. OASIS (dOctors AS patIentS) study was conducted to understand the prevalence, awareness, diagnosis and treatment of HD among doctors in big cities of China. Methods From August to October in 2020, an online survey was conducted through questionnaire among doctors from grade-A tertiary hospitals in 29 provinces across China. Results A total of 1227 questionnaires were collected. The prevalence of HD was 56.8%, with a significant difference between internists and surgeons (P=0.01). 15.6% doctors with HD did not know well about the chronic nature of HD. 91.5% of doctors adopted general treatment, and 83.0% doctors considered that “oral medications are used only after ineffective topical medications”. Among the oral medications, the Micronized Purified Flavonoid Fraction (MPFF) performed best on the scores of the three most valuable aspects, but only 17% doctors had received treatment with MPFF. Conclusions Doctors are at higher risk of developing HD, and HD is highly prevalent among Chinese doctors, but the awareness of that is not enough. There is a gap between the HD clinical practice and guideline recommendations even in doctors, such as late initiation of oral drug therapy and inadequate oral drug therapy. Therefore, awareness and standardized treatment of HD should be strengthened among Chinese doctors, and what’s more, ordinary people.