The diversity of opinion among general practitioners regarding the threat and measures against COVID-19 – Cross-sectional survey

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of participants/practices and experiences with COVID-19 in practices and nursing homes. Figures presented are absolute frequencies (percentages) or medians (25th/75th percentiles).

Variable (number of missing values among all participants/subgroups)	All N = 143	Sceptics n = 12	Hardliners n = 34	Balancers n = 77	Anxious n = 20
Characteristics of participants/practices
Female (0)	52 (35%)	3 (25%)	12 (35%)	32 (42%)	5 (25%)
Age > 60 years (0)	34 (24%)	6 (50%)	10 (29%)	15 (20%)	3 (15%)
In own practice since more than 20 years (2/0/1/1/0)	55 (39%)	8 (67%)	14 (42%)	27 (36%)	6 (30%)
Rural practice location (0)	69 (48%)	7 (58%)	15 (44%)	39 (51%)	8 (40%)
Practice close to a Covid-19 hotspot (4/0/1/3/0)	58 (42%)	4 (33%)	17 (52%)	27 (37%)	10 (50%)
At least one member of the practice team had SARS-CoV-2 infection (0)	29 (20%)	2 (17%)	8 (24%)	13 (17%)	6 (30%)
Had to introduce short-time work in the practice (0)	27 (19%)	2 (17%)	3 (9%)	15 (20%)	7 (35%)
COVID-19 in the practice
Number of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection in practice (8/0/2/2/5)	10 (4/20)	4 (0/18)	10 (6/18)	10 (4/20)	14 (3/20)
Number of COVID-19 tests performed in practice (45/2/13/23/7)*	53 (20/100)	10 (4/43)	35 (20/95)	74 (29/102)	40 (30/156)
Number of patients hospitalised due to COVID-19 (5/0/0/2/3)*	1 (0/2)	0 (0/2)	1 (0/3)	1 (0/2)	1 (2/4)
Number of patients died from COVOD-19 (3/0/0/2/1)	0 (0/1)	0 (0/1)	0 (0/1)	0 (0/1)	0 (0/1)
COVID-19 in nursing homes
GPs caring for a nursing home (0)	121 (85%)	12 (100%)	29 (85%)	64 (83%)	16 (80%)
Nursing homes at least SARS-CoV-2 infection (0)§	27 (22%)	2 (17%)	12 (41%)	7 (11%)	6 (37%)
At least 5 patients hospitalised (0)$	9	1	4	1	3
At least 3 patients died (0)$	6	0	3	1	2

*p-value in comparison between subgroups (from Kruskal-Wallis-test or χ² test) < 0.05; § analysis without the 22 GPs not caring for a nursing home; $only for the 27 nursing homes with COVID-19 cases.

Figure 1. Radar charts showing the answer patterns of the four archetpyes (black = sceptics, red = hardliners, green = balancers, and blue = anxious) regarding anxiety and depressive symptoms and concerns (a), and for threat posed by COVID-19 and the basic dilemma (b). The innermost circles indicate strong approval, the outermost circles strong disagreement.

Figure 2. Radar charts showing the answer patterns of the four archetpyes (black =sceptics, red = hardliners, green = balancers, and blue = anxious) regarding measures taken in March 2020 (a), relaxations in May 2020 (b), and consequences for the coming months (c). The innermost circles indicate strong approval, the outermost circles strong disagreement. For reasons of readability some items were inversely coded (= ic) or reworded.