Continuing professional development on planetary health for African family physicians: descriptive survey

Background The global ecological crisis is impacting vulnerable African communities and their primary care services. Family physicians and primary care providers need to be better prepared to respond to the effects on services and communities.

Aim To evaluate what members of the Primary Care and Family Medicine (PRIMAFAMED) network in sub-Saharan Africa need to know about planetary health, and how to address their learning needs.

Design & setting A descriptive cross-sectional survey of 40 institutions in the PRIMAFAMED network.

Method Two members from each institution were purposively invited to complete a questionnaire, developed from a qualitative study.

Results Eighty respondents, came from 38 institutions and 24 countries. The majority were not familiar with planetary health (58.2%) and never attended related education (60.8%). Main barriers were lack of clinical relevance, institutional or government support and educational resources. The top five clinical topics were: respiratory problems, infectious diseases, gastroenteritis, malnutrition, and cardiovascular disease together with diabetes. The top five broader topics were: how climate change impacts health, addressing environmental determinants through community-orientated primary care, how to make services more climate resilient and environmentally sustainable, and the effects of heat. Respondents reported that videos (49.4%), PowerPoint (48.1%), links to expert speakers (36.7%), and continuing professional development (CPD) articles (35.4%), would be most useful.

Conclusion Family physicians are interested in CPD on planetary health. Educational resources should enable clinical CPD to integrate specific information and should also include broader planetary health topics. These resources will be developed within the context of the PRIMAFAMED network.