Assessing knowledge, attitude and practices about clinical research among dental faculty and postgraduate students– an observational study

Author: 
Renuka Ammanagi., Rakhi Issrani and Namdeo Prabhu

Background: The multinational pharmaceutical companies are attracted to invest in countries like India and China as a result of globalization, the larger patient pool and also because of the availability of well trained medical and dental professionals. Even at this scenario, involvement of dental professionals in the field of clinical research is not very encouraging in India.

Hence it was decided to conduct a pilot questionnaire study to assess the present knowledge, attitude and practices regarding clinical research among Masters in Dental Science (MDS) faculty members and Postgraduate (PG) students in our dental institution.

Methodology: A self designed questionnaire with questions on various aspects of clinical research, present involvement in research and barriers commonly faced for getting engaged in research was circulated among the MDS faculty members and PG students of KLE VK Institute of Dental Sciences, Belgaum, Karnataka, India.

Results: It was observed that presently 38.6% of the participants were involved actively in research. 85.1% of them agreed that there is poor research scenario in dentistry in India at present. 80% of the participants felt that the scenario can be improved with proper training and by improving the infrastructure.

Discussion: The results of this questionnaire survey can be basically taken as an eye opener which discusses the vital factors responsible for lack of research among dental professionals. We have also made an attempt to discuss the measures to overcome the present scenario to make it more research friendly.

Download PDF: 
Select Volume: 
Volume6