A survey to assess the understanding of healthcare research among the Indian undergraduate medical students

The concept of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and critical appraisal should be taught to undergraduate (UG) medical students so that future doctors can confidently assess the trustworthiness of the literature they read. In the current study, the understanding of biomedical research among Indian UG medical students was assessed.

The Cross-sectional survey questionnaire as a Google form was circulated via online mode (WhatsApp, e-mail) in December 2020. Any UG medical students including interns from India could voluntarily participate. We aspired to get more than 601 responses as this was the minimum sample size calculated for our study, but we analyzed 715 responses. The questions of this self-made questionnaire were framed for assessing participants' attitudes and knowledge about healthcare research, EBM, and critical appraisal. The data were descriptively analyzed in frequency percentage. Chi2 tests were used to compare the association between categorical variables.

Almost equal participation from all grades of the MBBS study, with almost equal gender distribution, and the mean (SD) age of the participants was 21.09(2.06) years. 22% wanted to do their post-graduation (PG) abroad. 59% surfed the internet for new subject knowledge. Teachers have never asked to refer to any journal for 66%. 14% have read journal articles at least once, with half of the understanding. No difference in biostatistics knowledge before and after its curricular teaching in Third MBBS part 1. Foreign PG aspirants were taking part in research activities more. 46% wanted to do training in critical appraisal, and 43% believed not having critical appraisal skills will affect their patient care.

Indian UG medical students lacked the skills of critical appraisal. There was a lack of motivation and support from teachers. This scenario needs to change with the systemic inclusion of the components of healthcare research and EBM in the curriculum.