Can Undergraduates Understand the Evidence?

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine if evidence-based medicine (EBM) can be successfully taught to undergraduate students using topics of women's health and reproduction. METHODS: The effects of EBM training were studied in an undergraduate course “Understanding the Evidence: Provocative Topics of Women's Health and Reproduction.” The class comprised weekly didactic lectures and discussions with elective clinical shadowing. Specifically, the effects of knowledge acquisition, critical thinking, and shifts in attitudes on health-related topics were assessed by an 11-item questionnaire that students completed at the semester's beginning and end. Responses of 74 students from three semesters were evaluated. The nonparametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to compare presurvey and postsurvey responses using the Likert Scale (1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=no opinion, 4=agree, 5=strongly agree) at a P<.05 level of significance. RESULTS: Five questions showed significant positive shifts on the postsurvey and two questions showed significant negative shifts. Examples of significant positive shifts of proportions agreeing or strongly agreeing were familiarity with evidence-based medicine (58.1–98.7%, P<.001), confidence in finding information about a new medication (36.5–67.6%, P<.001) and legalization of sex workers (33.3–75.6%, P<.001). Examples of significant negative shifts included not trusting medical information from the news (67.5–90.5%, P<.001) and experiencing fear upon learning of a triplet pregnancy (53.4–82.4%, P<.001). Questions having sizable percentages of students without opinions on the presurvey (20–25%) had virtually all students forming opinions by postsurvey (P<.01). DISCUSSION: An EBM curriculum can teach undergraduates to think critically and make informed decisions.