Evaluation of Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of medicine students' knowledge and opinions about clinical research

Aim: In this study, the purpose was to evaluate the knowledge and opinions about clinical trials of medical students and to investigate the affecting factors. Method: This research is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. Volunteer students who were at first year, third year and final year of Dokuz Eylül University medicine faculty completed a questionnarie and they were analysed between dates May 30th-September 30th 2016. For calculations of knowledge and opinion questions, each right/positive answer was marked as 1 point, each wrong/negative and no idea/undecided answer was marked as 0 points. The data were analysed by descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, independent samples t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis analysis. The significance level was determined as p<0.05. Results: A total of 464 students who were 172 from 1st year, 210 from 3rd year and 82 from 6th year participated the study. The mean age of the students was 21.2 ± 2.3 and 48.4% were male and 51.6% were female. The knowledge about clinical trials point was 19.8 ± 6.3 out of 33 points. In other words, the correct response rate of the questions was approximately 60%. The mean knowledge score of the students of 1st year was lower than those of 3rd and 6th year (p <0.001). The knowledge score of the students who had advanced level of English was higher than the students in the beginning, intermediate and no idea group (p = 0.001, p = 0.001, p = 0.010, respectively). While "clinical research cannot be started without the permission of the ethics committee" was the most correctly answered information (428 correct answers, 92.6%), "it is strictly forbidden to conduct clinical research with children, pregnant women and puerperants, unconscious patients and the disabled people" was the least known information (50 correct answers, 10.9%). The average positive opinion score of the students regarding clinical research was found to be 6.2 ± 1.5 out of 9 points. There was no difference between the mean point of view of students of 1st 3rd and 6th year (p = 0.325). 'The volunteers participating in the clinical trial feel like guinea pigs" and "clinical studies conducted by the pharmaceutical industry are ethically reliable studies" were had the lowest positive opinion score (36.4% and 29.0%, respectively) by the students. A positive, moderate and significant correlation was found between students' level of knowledge about clinical trials and positive opinion scores (r = 0.322, p <0.001). 94.1% of the students thought that medical school students should have more information about clinical research, 17.3% thought that the information given about clinical research in medical school education curriculum was adequate, 84.3% thought that information about clinical research would be useful in their career life and 67.8% of the students answered "yes" to "would you like to work as a researcher in clinical trials" question when 40.9% students answered "yes" to "would you like to voluntarily participate in a clinical trial" question. Conclusion: The knowledge about clinical trials of the students was average. The knowledge scores were higher in the 3rd and 6th year and the students who speak advanced english showed that the education related to the researches in the medical school education program and the ability to read foreign sources easily affected the clinical research knowledge score positively. Students with a high knowledge score had more positive opinions about clinical trials. Clinical research plays an important role in increasing the quality standard in health. There is a need for more effective training in clinical research in order to improve the knowledge of future physicians, to eliminate misunderstandings and to make them a pioneer in future clinical research. Keywords: Clinical research, medical students, students'knowledge level, students'opinions, clinial research education