Genetische Themen für die Facharztweiterbildung Allgemeinmedizin? Eine Querschnittstudie unter Hausärzt:innen

Background Around one in 20 patients in family practice brings at least one genetically influenced health condition into consultation. To ensure comprehensive health care, knowledge of genetic aspects of diseases should be imparted in post-graduate training programs in family medicine. The topic of genetics is already anchored in some international curricula in the field of family medicine. The aim of the study was to determine which topics and competencies regarding genetics are relevant during post-graduate training from the point of view of family physicians in Germany. Methods A cross-sectional postal survey was carried out in the period between 11/2018 and 02/2019 by using a questionnaire that was sent to 2,012 family physicians in Germany. Beside socio-demographic aspects, the confidence to carry out genetic tasks as well as interpreting pedigrees were questioned with a Likert scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 6 (strongly disagree). In addition, relevance of various post-graduate training content on genetic topics was requested using a Likert scale from 1 (very relevant) to 6 (not relevant at all). The analysis of the data was carried out using SPSS 27.0 (IBM). Results A total of 292 (15 %) family physicians took part in the survey. 52 % of the participants were female and the average age was 53. In the mean of 3.2 (SD 1.5) family physicians felt confident in interpreting pedigrees. 25 of the participants (9 %) created a pedigree in the last twelve months. Cancer (M 1.6; SD 0.7) and multifactorial diseases with a genetic component (M 1.7; SD 0.9) were graded most relevant to post-graduate training. Conclusions There is a heterogeneous awareness of genetically (co-)deter-mined diseases in family practice. Based on existing uncertain-ties in dealing with associated consultation issues as well as genetic topics identified as relevant for post-graduate medical education, knowledge and skills competencies on specific genetic topics should be taken up.