Attitude of physicians toward Applying Evidence Based Medicine and its Related Barriers

Evidence based medicine (EBM) is proper, correct and intellectual use of the best evidence in clinical decision making for every single patient care. Studies have shown the use of authentic evidence in clinical care is influenced by people’s attitude. The purpose of this study was to evaluate physician’s attitudes toward, and barriers in implementing evidence based medicine in Iran It was a cross-sectional study. The study population included Iranian general practitioners, residents and specialists in 2011. The sample size was decided to be 245 and the participants were selected through simple random sampling. The data were collected using a questionnaire including information regarding research purposes. Face and content validity of the questionnaire were examined through referring to experts’ judgment and its reliability was found to be α = 0.8. Regarding attitude, 85.3% of physicians agreed that evidence-based medicine would improve patient care; 71.8% believed EBM aids clinical decision-making and 89% also believed that accessing digital libraries could benefit doctors in implementing evidencebased medicine. Lack of capital investment and material and moral incentives for physicians 59.2%) and the need to learn new skills (56.3%) were considered as the biggest barriers in implementing EBM. While physicians have positive attitudes towards evidence-based medicine, lack of investment and lack of material and intellectual reinforcement have made physicians neglect evidence-based medicine in clinical practice.