Abstract
ABSTRACT
Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess knowledge and attitudes of family physicians in Mosul city toward evidence-based medicine and to describe the major barriers to practicing evidence based medicine.
Method: A cross sectional questionnaire based survey has been adopted for this study. For the period between the 1st of June and 31st of August 2012; a self-administered questionnaire had been distributed to all 71 family physicians registered in Nineveh Health Directorate and practicing in primary health centers in Mosul city. The main outcome measures were: participants’ attitudes toward evidence –based medicine (EBM), their knowledge about the important technical terms used in EBM and their perception of barriers to EBM practice.
Results: Sixty one family physicians participated in this study, 24 (39.3%) were males and 37 (60.7%) were females. The response rate was 85.9%. The mean age of the participants was 36.15 years. Most of the respondents had positive attitudes toward EBM: 54.1% showed welcoming attitudes towards EBM; 44.3% showed strongly welcoming attitudes towards EBM; 65.6% believed that most of their clinical practice was evidence based; 90% agreed with the concept of practicing EBM improves patients care. The participants showed deficient knowledge regarding the technical terms commonly used in EBM. Patients overload and lack of personal time were the major perceived barriers to practicing EBM (78.7% and 65.6%) respectively.
Conclusion: Although this research revealed high support among family physicians in Mosul for the practice of EBM, they showed a deficiency in knowledge about EBM.
Keywords: EBM, family physicians, family medicine, knowledge, attitudes.
