Awareness of Medical Students About Evidence-Based Medicine

Abstract

Objective: Evidence-based medicine is integrating existing proven information with the physician’s personal experiences, patient values and expectations, and using this information carefully, clearly and logically while making decisions about the patient in the clinic. The aim of this study is to evaluate the awareness of a medical school students about evidence-based medicine. In addition, we aimed to determine the theoretical and practical course content related to evidence-based medicine during the medical education of the students.

Methods: The sample of the study consisted of 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade students of medical school. Questionnaire forms consisting of 23 questions in total, developed by the researchers, were used in the study. Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test were used for statistical analysis.

Results: 163 students were included in the study. 43.6% of the participants had received evidence-based medicine training and 92% of the participants had heard of evidence-based medicine. 78.5% of the participants wanted to learn more about evidence-based medicine. To acquire medical knowledge, 93.9% of the participants used lecture notes and 75.5% used ders kitabıs. In terms of knowledge of databases, 81% knew Pubmed, 58.3% Google Scholar, 55.3% Medline, 35% knew UpToDate.

Conclusion: There is a need to increase awareness and access to available evidence-based medicine resources. Appropriate curricula should be prepared in universities for evidence-based medical education and obstacles to evidence-based medicine should be removed.