Knowledge and beliefs concerning evidence-based practice amongst complementary and alternative medicine health care practitioners and allied health care professionals: A questionnaire survey
2008

Knowledge and beliefs about evidence-based practice among health care practitioners

Sample size: 193 publication Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Hadley Julie, Hassan Ismail, Khan Khalid S

Primary Institution: The Education Resource Centre, Birmingham Women's Health Care NHS Trust

Hypothesis

What are the knowledge, skills, and beliefs concerning evidence-based practice among complementary and alternative medicine health care practitioners and allied health care professionals?

Conclusion

Practitioners' learning needs vary based on profession, time since graduation, and prior research experience.

Supporting Evidence

  • 87.3% of respondents had not attended a literature appraisal skills workshop.
  • 69.9% had not received formal training in research methods.
  • 91.2% had not received training in epidemiology.
  • 80.8% had not received training in statistics.
  • 67.1% felt they had not had adequate training in evidence-based medicine.

Takeaway

The study found that many health care practitioners feel they need more training in evidence-based practice to help them make better health care decisions.

Methodology

A questionnaire survey was conducted among attendees of one-day evidence-based practice workshops.

Potential Biases

The respondents may have been more aware and self-motivated than other practitioners, potentially skewing the results.

Limitations

The sample was not randomly selected and may not represent all practitioners, as it was limited to those who voluntarily attended the courses.

Participant Demographics

Participants included 121 allied health care professionals and 65 CAM practitioners, with varying years of experience.

Statistical Information

P-Value

0.008

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1186/1472-6882-8-45

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