Lei Zhang ¹ Guanghui Wang ¹ Haiying Chen ¹ Xiaoqing Gu ¹ Minjie Jia ¹ Ying Yu ¹ Xiaoxiao Cao ¹ Ruiping Wang ^2*

• ¹ Fengxian Xidu Community Health Service Center, Shanghai, China, Shanghai, China
• ² shanghai skin dissease hospital, tongji university, shanghai ,china, Shanghai, China

Objective: Primary care general practitioners (GPs) play a crucial role in common skin diseases diagnosis and treatment for community residents. However, factors influencing their diagnostic practices remain under explored. This study aims to investigate the current status of clinical diagnostic ability for common skin diseases and potential influencing factors among GPs in Shanghai, China.Methods: Between January and June 2023, we recruited 5745 GPs among 240 community healthcare service centers in Shanghai, and online survey was conducted among 5745 randomly selected GPs with signed informed consents. Images of ten skin diseases was used to evaluate the diagnostic ability for common skin diseases among GPs, logistic regression analysis was applied to explore the potential influencing factors in GPs with a good skin diseases diagnostic ability.The 5745 general practitioners included 1740 male (30.3%), the age ranged from 25 to 60 years with an average of age of 40.8 years (SD: 8.2 years). The total score for skin diseases diagnostic ability ranged from 2 to 10, with a median value of 7.5 (interquartile range [IQR] 6-9). In this study, 1534 out of the 5742 GPs who have achieved ≥ 9 scores were identified as GPs with good diagnostic ability, with a percentage of 26.7%. Logistic regression analysis indicated that GPs with 11 to 15 and over 15 years of work experience had a higher percentage of good diagnostic ability compared with those with <5 years, the OR was 1.23 (95% CI: 1.02-1.48) and 1.25 (95% CI:1.05-1.49) respectively. GPs with advanced studies [OR=1.61, 95% CI:1.33-1.95] and work experience [OR=1.39, 95% CI:1.20-1.61] in dermatology had a higher percentage of good diagnostic ability.: The overall diagnostic ability for common skin diseases was good among GPs working in the community health service centers in Shanghai. GPs with more years of work, advanced studies and work experience in dermatology have better diagnostic abilities. So we recommend to implement specialized training programs focusing on common skin diseases diagnosis and treatment among GPs, especially among those with less work experience and those lack of advanced training.