Evidence-based practice among primary care physicians in Kuwait.
OBJECTIVE
The level of evidence-based practice (EBP) and awareness has not been previously assessed among primary care physicians in Kuwait. The objectives of this study were to quantify the level of EBP and awareness in Kuwait and identify the factors related to EBP.


METHODS
We used a cross sectional study that enrolled 332 primary care physicians in 57 primary care centres randomly chosen in Kuwait. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data with a response rate of about 93%.


RESULTS
Although half of the physicians self reported that they use EBP most of the time, further analysis revealed that only about 24% of this group had a reasonable understanding of EBP. Most of the clinical practice in the Kuwaiti primary care system seems to be based on the clinician's own judgment or what they learned in the medical school and traditional text books, rather than evidence-based sources. None of the physicians had an Internet connection at their work place and a vast majority of them had no access to international journals nor were confident about critical appraisal of published evidence.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall level of awareness of evidence-based medicine (EBM) among primary care physicians in Kuwait was considerably low. Training in the areas of EBM as well as making sure the Kuwaiti primary care centres have access to evidence-based sources are critically important if primary care in Kuwait were to become evidence based.
Ahmad
Abeer S H
AS
Graduate Student, Department of Community Medicine and BS, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait, Kuwait.
Al-Mutar
Nouf B E
NB
Al-Hulabi
Fahad A S
FA
Al-Rashidee
Eman S L
ES
Doi
Suhail A R
SA
Thalib
Lukman
L
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires