Knowledge attitudes and practices of evidence based medicine among residence doctors in Sudan

Abstract EN

Objectives : The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine the awareness and attitude of hospital resident doctors towards evidence-based medicine (EBM) and their related educational needs.

Methods : A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on a randomly selected sample of 141 hospital resident doctors from teaching hospitals.

Awareness and Attitude towards EBM, accessing to internet and Midlines and perceived barriers to practice EBM among participants were the main outcome measures.

Results : 92.1 % strongly welcomed introduction and promotion of EBM in daily management of patients.

About one-third of respondents (32.7 %) thought that the most appropriate way to move towards EBM was by seeking and applying EBM summaries.

Most of the participants had access to internet (82 %) and those who were never heard or had a course on EBM were (85 %).

Only 10 % who used EBM in 50 % to 100 % of their clinical practice.

The major barriers to practicing EBM were no time due to patient overload (85 %), lack of libraries (65 %) limited resource (62 %) and lack of training (60 %).

Most of the participants (79 %) agreed to be one of the requirements of full registration in Sudan Medical Council.

Conclusions : Although there is a high support among doctors for the promotion of EBM, there is a deficit in knowledge and lack of skills of EBM.

Hence, the time is suitable for planning and implementing an effective EBM educational programme for both undergraduate and postgraduate doctors.

Evidence-based medicine has limitations, and more efforts need to be directed toward improving doctors’ skills and access to evidence at the point of care.