Abstract: Objective As the gatekeepers of community health, it is important for general practitioners to improve knowledge, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C disease to reduce the medical burden in China. Methods To organize hepatitis C diagnosis and treatment specialists to sink into the community to conduct health education rounds on the topic of hepatitis C, and to compile appropriate questionnaires which included four parts: basic information of respondents, knowledge of hepatitis C, understanding of hepatitis C policy, and prevention and treatment of hepatitis C. The above questionnaires were conducted before and after the tour to compare the significance of the grass-roots tour to enhance the awareness of hepatitis C among general practitioners in the community. Results From May 2021 to the end of April 2022, 10 lectures were held at the local community health center, 112 and 105 valid questionnaires were recovered, respectively. The results showed that the mean scores of hepatitis C disease awareness level, policy awareness level and prevention and treatment level of the residents in the host community were 2.89 ± 0.76, 2.37 ± 0.75, and 2.63 ± 0.76, respectively. After the tour, the above scores were 3.82 ± 0.83, 3.55 ± 1.14 and 3.75 ± 0.85, with statistical differences (P<0.05). Through the Hepatitis C theme tour, the proportion of general practitioners'awareness of hepatitis C high-risk groups and transmission routes has increased; The rate of general practitioners (GPs) willing to test invasive subjects for hepatitis C antibodies increased from 57.10% before the round to 75.20% after the round. The rate of GPs willing to test HCV RNA in HCV-positive patients for diagnosis increased from 59.80% before the round to 68.6% after the round. Only 53.6% of GPs were willing to educate patients and 62.5% of general practitioners were willing to refer hepatitis C patients to higher-level hospitals, which increased to 67.6% and 74.3% respectively after the tour. Conclusion The hepatitis C theme tour to the grassroots can not only effectively raise the awareness level of community GPs in hepatitis C prevention and treatment, but also is an important exploration of community-centered hepatitis C elimination model, which is a key step to achieve the strategic goal of “eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030”.

Key words: General practitioner, Hepatitis C awareness, Elimination Strategies