Knowledge and attitudes of American physicians and public about medical chronobiology and chronotherapeutics. Findings of two 1996 Gallup surveys.

Two Gallup telephone interview surveys were conducted during 1996 of 320 American primary care physicians and 1011 adults to assess their knowledge and attitudes about medical chronobiology and chronotherapeutics. Of the doctors, 88% claimed to possess at least some familiarity with the concept of chronobiology and circadian rhythms; however, many were not often able to identify correctly the time of day or night when common medical conditions and events most likely occur or worsen. Furthermore, a significant number of doctors believed that chronotherapies, special dosage forms that proportion medications during the day and night in synchrony to need with reference to 24 h patterns in the intensity of symptoms and risk of severe medical events, were already being marketed in the United States for angina pectoris, hypertension, respiratory allergies, and other medical conditions even though this was not the case at the time of the survey. On the other hand, the doctors were relatively unaware of those chronotherapies that actually did exist to treat asthma and peptic ulcer disease. American adults also lacked knowledge of temporal patterns in disease and were seldom able to identify the clock time when asthma and myocardial infarction are of greatest risk or when blood pressure is highest. Although neither the American physicians nor adults possessed knowledge of these facts, both had a strong positive attitude toward the concept of chronotherapeutics. Overall, the findings of these Gallup surveys indicate that a massive educational effort is necessary immediately to ensure new developments in medical chronobiology and chronotherapeutics are correctly comprehended and properly incorporated by physicians into clinical medicine and wisely utilized by patients.