Family Physician's knowledge and attitude towards Evidence Based Medicine in Qazvin 2008

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a relatively new approach to the teaching and clinical practice of medicine. Physician's clinical decision-making was based on the knowledge received during their medical training and experiences gained through individual patient encounters i. e. opinion-based. The evidence-based clinical practice guideline provides recommendations to primary care clinicians for diagnosis and management of patients. This study aimed to general physician’s knowledge and attitude towards Evidence Based Medicine in Qazvin 2008. A descriptive 20-item questionnaire-based survey was conducted in general physician's Qazvin university of Medical Sciences. We used a questionnaire to gather data about knowledge and attitude them about EBM. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 11. 5. The data were analyzed by Cronbach's alpha, and descriptive tests. A total 108 general physicians responded to questionnaire. The internal consistency of questionnaire in our study was high with a cronbach's alpha of 0. 83. Overall, the respondents were positive towards EBM. The most common barriers to practicing EBM were lack of time (72%), insufficiency of knowledge about EBM (85%), and limited availability of guidelines (45%). 65% of respondents had internal access in the workplace. It seems that there is a serious need to encourage family physicians to spend more time on more reliable sources of information. Continuing Medical education should be developed to enhance their abilities to make good questions, literature search techniques, critical appraisal skills, and application in patient management.