Assessment of healthcare providers’ knowledge, attitude, and practice toward medical research in southwest Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study | BMC Medical Education

To the best of our knowledge, this cross-sectional study is the first to evaluate the KAP of HCPs towards medical research, revealed motivating factors and barriers, and identified associated variables with good knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice. The findings revealed that while HCPs demonstrated positive attitudes, their knowledge, and practice were poor, reflecting a lack of research activities and educational programs. This study also identified the key barriers to conducting research, as well as the primary motivating factors. Moreover, this study highlighted specific groups of HCPs those with diploma, bachelor, and board degrees, as well as those working in PHCs and hospitals who showed poor knowledge and practice, indicating areas in need of improvement.
HCPs’ median (IQR) knowledge score in the current study was 43% (14–57%) indicated a poor knowledge, which was similar to a study conducted in the KSA [2]. In contrast, a study carried out in India reported that the average knowledge score of medical students towards research was 70% [13]. Another study conducted in the KSA reported the average knowledge score of healthcare practitioners was 57% [18].
Although 60% of study participants were able to identify essential elements of informed consent, unfortunately, their knowledge to the main structure of the abstract, and software used for statistical analysis and were ranged from 45 to 47%. A study carried out in the KSA [18], was similar to the finding of the current study except for proper sampling methods and reference management where the knowledge of the HCPs in the current was 16% and 28%, respectively.
Interestingly, the HCPs in the current study showed a positive attitude, which was coincided with three previous studies [11, 18, 21]. Vast majority of HCPs in the current study wished to get more training on the research methodologies, contributed to medical researches. Finding a study conducted by Al Sayegh et al. [18] and Pallamparthy et al. [13] were congruent with our findings. Health researchers are very important in creating new diagnostic tools which help in early detection of diseases, earlier therapy, and consequence of better outcomes [2, 22]. Similarly, most of HCPs in the current study agreed that the medical researches improve the understanding of disease prevalence and provide good therapeutic outcomes. In terms of medical researches regarding the improvement of carrier progression, majority of HCPs in the current study stressed on this merit as reported by previous study [17].
HCPs in our study indicated poor research practices as shown by other studies [11, 17, 18]. About 70% of the study participants in the current study participated in writing medical research and 66.3% published manuscripts. This could be explained that they might rely on researcher advice agencies in doing researches. In contrast, the participation in writing health researches was ranged between 38 and 53% in previously published studies [17, 18, 23]. Study participants in the current study stated that they attended workshops related to research methodologies and participated in research posters at 53% and 56%, respectively. This finding were in line with a study carried out in by Al Sayegh in the KSA [18]. Comparably, 91% of healthcare givers in a study carried out in the KSA attended workshops related to research methodologies and 44% of them presented research posters [23]. Roughly 38% of the HCPs in the current study received awards. Healthcare providers in a study conducted in the KSA showed dissimilar percentage which was about 22% [18].
Training and courses regarding medical research are often a lack in curriculum of HCPs especially non-medical workers. Therefore, this study highly underscores the need for involving research methodology course in the curriculum of both medical and non-medical students in order to equipped them properly during conducting researches either before or after joining the work as HCPs. Moreover, interventional training programs and continues workshops could be used to better inform such courses.
The current study identified the most barriers that deterred HCPs from carrying out the researches, which included lack of financial support, poor time management, no enough research facilities, lack of motivation, inadequate skills and knowledge, and lack of rewards. Similarly, a study conducted by Ibrahih et al. [17] reported the most barriers against research were lack of research training, time for research education, time for conducting research, and statistical support. Other studies highlighted obstacles preventing resident and medical doctors from conducting researches such as lack of time, inadequate skills and knowledge, and some personal reasons, particularly learning of general practitioners taking up a lot of time [11, 18]. The mentioned barriers could be resolved throughout enhancement the research environment, periodic research activities and education programs, support researchers through finance, time, and awards.
In terms of the motivating factors, in the present study, the top factors were strength the resume and fulfillment of work requirements. In line with our findings, a study reported the most motivating factors that encourage the participants to carry out research were to increase opportunities of being accepted into programs and to develop research skills [18].
While the significantly associated variables with good knowledge towards medical research in the present study were taken research methodology course and qualification, age, gender, and place of work were not significant associated with good knowledge. These variables were congruent with a previous study [17]. However, another study revealed a significant association between gender and knowledge [13]. Moreover, a study conducted in the same region to assess the KAP of HCPs towards antibiotic resistance during pandemic found association between good knowledge and nationality, cadre, qualification and working place [21].
The significantly associated variables with positive attitude towards medical research in the present study were working place and qualification. Comparably, in the KSA, age, nationality, and qualification were associated with positive attitude of HCPs towards antibiotic resistance during pandemic [21].
In this study, nationality and completion of research methodology course were significantly associated with good practice among the HCPs. Non-Saudi HCPs had practice scores that were approximately 20% lower than their Saudi counterparts. This difference may be attributed to the fact that non-Saudi HCPs tend to have professional-based education, while Saudi HCPs typically have academic or mixed-mode educational backgrounds. In contrast, previous study conducted in the same region found that age, cadre, qualifications and workplace were the most significantly associated with good research practice [21].
The current study presents several strengths that contribute to its significance in the field. First, it is the first study to assess the KAP of HCPs toward medical research, while also identifying motivating factors, barriers, and associated variables to KAP. Second, this study provides a representative overview of HCPs’ KAP regarding medical research across the entire region. Third, the use of a proportionate sampling method effectively controlled for selection bias, enhancing the reliability of the findings. Additionally, the study identified associated factors influencing the KAP of HCPs through both univariate and multivariate analyses.
However, there was a few limitations to consider. First, the response rate was approximately 65% which might lead to selection bias, and those who declined to participate may have had different perspectives. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that nonresponding HCPs have a different point of views. Second, the finding of this study may not be generalizable to all Saudi HCPs, as the research was conducted specifically in the Najran region of KSA. Third, as a cross-sectional study it cannot establish causal relationships or assess long-term trends in healthcare providers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Fourth, the study relied on subjective assessments of HCPs and did not consider other outcome factors. Lastly, the study faced challenges in controlling confounding variables, such as years of experience. While years of experience in medical practice were considered, they may not be relevant to medical research unless the HCPs are specifically interested or their roles require it.
According to the findings of the current study, we highlight some critical practical recommendations such as implementing periodic research methodology training programs, creating mentorship programs, establish research units at healthcare institutions, encouraging collaboration with academic institutions, providing incentives for research participation, talking the issue of time constraints, and supporting researchers through access to research resources. By considering the importance of these recommendations, healthcare organizations can foster a more supportive and conducive research environment, leading to improve the quality of research and outcomes.
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