Knowledge, attitudes and practices around health research: the perspective of physicians-in-training in Pakistan.
BACKGROUND
Health research training is an essential component of medical education and a vital exercise to help develop physician research skills. This study was carried out to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices towards research amongst a group of Post Graduate Medical Trainees (PGMTs') at Aga Khan University (AKU), Pakistan.


METHODS
A cross sectional health research survey was carried out on all PGMTs' at AKU Pakistan. AKU is a tertiary care health facility which offers residency in 28 specialties and fellowship in 16 programs. Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to health research were assessed using a pretested, structured and validated questionnaire. Health research related practices of the residents were examined using questions graded on Likert scale.


RESULTS
Mean percentage score +/- SD on the knowledge scale was 36.9% +/- 20.2 and 47.19% +/- 25.18 on the attitude scale. Of 104(55.6%) who had previously participated in research 28(26.9%) had been involved in basic science research only, 62(59.6%) in clinical research and 14(13.5%) had participated in both clinical and basic science research projects. 88(47.1%) planned to pursue a future research career. Those who planned to pursue a future research career had more positive health research attitudes p < 0.001. Limited time (45%), poor research infrastructure (20%) and inadequate research funding opportunities (20%) were the major hurdles faced by PGMTs' to pursue research.


CONCLUSIONS
PGMTs' demonstrate inadequate knowledge, while they have moderate attitudes towards health research. Residency training and research facilities at the institution need to undergo major transformation in order to encourage meaningful research by resident trainees.
Khan
Hassan
H
Department of Surgery, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. drhasankhan@gmail.com
Khan
Sadaf
S
Iqbal
Arshad
A
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002321:Career Choice; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010154:Pakistan; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000193:education*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires