Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Medical Research: The Perspective of Medical Students

Abstract

This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices towards research among Undergraduate Medical students. This study also focused to emphasize the need of Research Methodology training programs for undergraduate medical students. About 308 undergraduate medical students of S.R.M. Medical College, Chennai were given a structured questionnaire to evaluate their knowledge, attitudes and practices about medical research. A total of 301 returned the completed questionnaires and were included in the analysis. Data collected was subjected to descriptive analysis. About 68.4% of students are interested in participating in research and 9.3% of them actively participated in research projects. Lack of knowledge about research methodology (40.86%), lack of time (39.86%), Lack of guidance (14.2%) and lack of financial support (4.6%) were considered as the obstacles to carry out research projects by the interested students. In conclusion even though a fair number of undergraduate students interested in research, a very few actively participate in research projects. This was probably due to lack of knowledge about research methodology and lack of time.