A study of resident′s attitude, knowledge and barriers towards the use of evidence based medicine

Is evidence-based medicine a mirage in resource-constrained settings? A survey among resident doctors in selected teaching hospitals in Nigeria

AIM

The study aimed to assess the self-rated knowledge, attitude toward, and practice (KAP) of evidence-based medicine (EBM) among resident doctors in Nigeria.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional web-based survey among 238 resident doctors in four selected teaching hospitals in southern Nigeria. Survey questionnaire contained items assessing the KAP of EBM, familiarity with and understanding of key EBM terms, the use of EBM in decision making, barriers militating against EBM and ways to improve EBM adoption. Proportions and summary statistics were reported for the distribution of survey items.

RESULTS

Mean number of years in clinical practice was 9.3 ± 4.5 years. Respondents were uniformly distributed in major clinical specialties. The majority (70.5%) were senior registrars. Respondents' understanding of EBM components included; current best clinical evidence (98.3%), clinical expertise (65.5%), and patients' choices (36.6%). Self-rated familiarity with EBM terms was high while perceived understanding of the terms was lower. The least understood concept was heterogeneity (20.6%). The attitude toward EBM was generally positive. Only about half (53.6%) had used medical bibliographic databases within the last 6 months prior to the survey. Barriers against EBM included lack of time (47.1%) and lack of requisite skills (32.4%). Suggestions to improve EBM adoption included training (58.1%), provision of free Wi-Fi, and free access to bibliographic databases (25.2%) and increased political will (23.1%).

CONCLUSION

A further understanding of the EBM concept, provision of enabling infrastructure, regular clinical audit and advocacy to hospital management and clinical consultants, may improve the level of adoption of EBM.

Knowledge, attitudes and practice of physicians toward evidence-based medicine: A systematic review

AIM

To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of graduate physicians toward evidence-based medicine (EBM) and the barriers to the implementation of EBM worldwide.

METHODS

Relevant databases were searched systematically with appropriate search terms up to September 2017. References of the articles detected by the search were screened for any new articles. Risk of bias was assessed by two independent reviewers. Data were extracted from the full-text articles based on the study summary measures and were collected in a data table.

RESULTS

Fifty-seven articles were finally included in this systematic review. The studies were of variable and moderate quality. Based on our results, physicians have a generally positive attitude toward EBM and most of them believe that its implementation improves patient care. However, their self-reported awareness and knowledge regarding EBM concepts and the main databases are generally poor. The major barriers to the practice of EBM were related to patient overload and lack of personal time, knowledge, and skills rather than a lack of facilities and resources. However, this pattern varied among the studies. Most of the physicians in the included studies referred to their colleagues and textbooks to answer most of their clinical questions.

CONCLUSION

Although many physicians have poor EBM knowledge and skills, the majority of them have a positive attitude toward the implication of EBM. To overcome the barriers against the evidence-based practice, it is recommended that appropriate policies be adopted to decrease physicians' workload and to provide them with preappraised evidence.