title: Impact of Mode of Curriculum on Knowledge and Attitudes of Medical Students towards Health Research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Equipping students with skills in medical research should be an integral part of medical education systems. This study is designed to gauge the difference in knowledge and attitudes towards health research between two sets of undergraduate medical students; those enrolled in the new Problem Based Learning (PBL) education system versus those of the conventional Lecture Based Learning (LBL) curricula.
  
  
  METHODS
  From the 4(th) and 5(th) years of medical university students, 90 participants were recruited from the Aga Khan University (PBL group) and Dow University of Health Sciences (LBL group) and were presented with structured and pre-validated questionnaire. Responses obtained for knowledge and attitudes of each group were recorded on a scale and graduated in percentages to be compared statistically for differences to identify the effectiveness of each curriculum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The score on the knowledge scale for the PBL group was found to be 44.77% against the 31.55% of the LBL students (p-value<0.001). Furthermore, the mean attitude score of AKU students was 72.22% as opposed to the 56.11% of the DUHS participants (p-value<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The PBL group achieved significantly higher scores in all aspects than the LBL group, showing healthier attitudes towards health science research along with better knowledge. Hence, the apparent positive influence of PBL curricula on attitudes towards research may be helpful in improving research output of medical students in Pakistan.
authors.affiliation: Faculty, Department of Medicine, Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences , Karachi, Pakistan .
authors.forename: Abdul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haseeb
authors.affiliation: Faculty, Department of Medicine, Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences , Karachi, Pakistan .
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bilal
authors.affiliation: Faculty, Department of Medicine, Medical College, Aga Khan University Hospital , Karachi, Pakistan .
authors.forename: M Ahmed
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.affiliation: Faculty, Department of Statistics, Medical College, Aga Khan University Hospital , Karachi, Pakistan .
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raheem
authors.affiliation: Faculty, Department of Medicine, Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences , Karachi, Pakistan .
authors.forename: Aleena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Faculty, Department of Medicine, Medical College, Aga Khan University Hospital , Karachi, Pakistan .
authors.forename: Mohammad Hussham
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Arshad
authors.affiliation: Pre-Medical Student, Department of Biological Sciences, The Lyceum , Karachi, Pakistan .
authors.forename: Vanita
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Motiani
authors.affiliation: Pre-Medical Student, Department of Biological Sciences, The Lyceum , Karachi, Pakistan .
authors.forename: Muhammad Shahzeb
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Akhtar
keywords: Lecture based learning; Medical education system; Problem based learning; Research output