DETERMINING THE PRACTİCES AND APPROACHES OF FAMILY HEALTH PERSONNEL TO CHRONIC DISEASES

SUMMARY Objective: This research was conducted to determine the practices and approaches of family health personnel to prevent chronic diseases. Method: The research was carried out descriptively between 05/08/2021-20/09/2021. In the study, 101 family health personnel were reached by using the snowball sampling method. The data collection form created by the researchers consists of 3 parts. In the first part, there are 8 questions to determine the age, gender, occupation, education level, registered population, the average population aged 50-64 and 65 and over, and the field-specific training they attend. In the second part, there are 34 questions to determine their approaches to chronic diseases. In the third part, there are 10 questions about the evaluation of the lifestyle, finding the practices related to chronic diseases adequate, organizing individual/family and community-specific education, training topics, and following publications. Results: It was found that 20.8% of family health personnel evaluated healthy individuals in terms of diabetes risk and referred them to a family physician, 32.7% did not evaluate individuals with any chronic disease other than diabetes in terms of diabetes risk and did not refer them to a family physician. 77.2% of family health personnel evaluate all pregnant women who apply to them in terms of gestational diabetes and refer them to their family physician for glucose tolerance test measurements. 47.5% evaluate all individuals with a history of childhood diabetes in terms of diabetes measurement and refer them to their family physician for glucose tolerance test measurements. 34.7% of family health personnel measure the systolic and diastolic values of healthy individuals at least once, the systolic and diastolic values of individuals with any chronic disease other than hypertension (HT) at least once, and 40.6% of them measure adolescents with HT in the adolescent period does not direct them to the family physician. 31.7% of family health personnel refer more than half of healthy individuals to their family physician for at least one evaluation of their total cholesterol levels. 33.7% of family health personnel calculate the Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than half of the healthy individuals at least once, and 33.7% evaluate the BMI of individuals with any chronic disease at least once. 39.6% of family health personnel evaluate healthy individuals in terms of cancer risk and refer them to a family physician, 37.6% of them evaluate more than half of women aged 40 and over who do not have any genetic history, complaints, or symptoms in terms of cancer, in terms of breast cancer risk and refer them to a family physician, 35.6% and 6% of men who do not have any chronic disease and are aged 40 and over refer more than half of men to their family physician in terms of colon cancer risk Conclusion: It can be said that family health personnel should be developed in terms of the ability to evaluate healthy and sick individuals in terms of chronic disease risk. Within the scope of primary health education, it is recommended to develop information and empowerment programs that will prevent or delay the emergence of chronic diseases in individuals and contribute to disease management.