Determination of Health Research Conducting Quality Perceptions of Medical Postgraduate Trainees

Background: Health researchers in medical universities are surrounded by existing hurdles to the health research during the process of conduction which may affect the quality of conduction of health research undertaken by the medical trainees. The bulk of the health researchers are unaware about the benefits of prevalent barriers for the good quality of conducting of health research in various public sector medical universities. The current study is conducted to determine the effects of barriers on the quality of conduction of health research.

Objective: To assess the effects of barriers on the quality of conduction of health research.

Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Research conducting postgraduate trainees in various disciplines in a public sector medical university in a developing country from 1st September 2018 to 31st December 2018.

Methodology: Two hundred & sixteen health research trainees were recruited for the study through a stratified sampling technique; the subjects included 79 males &137 females of age bracket of 24-50 years. After taking the consent, data was collected on a preformed questionnaire and analyzed in SPSS version 23.0 by computing proportions, mean ± standard deviation and using Chi- square test as statistical test of significance with the p-value of 0.05 taken as level of significance.

Results: Overall, two hundred and fifty subjects were approached to obtain the complete response of the required sample of two hundred and sixteen. The response rate was 86.4%. The 72 (33.3%) trainees in medicine and allied sciences, 66 (92%) trainees experienced various barriers in quality of conducting of health research. From 42 (19.4%) trainees in surgery and allied sciences, 22 (51.2%) perceived effects of barriers on their health research conducting (HRC) quality. Amongst 33 (15.3%) trainees in basic sciences, 15 (45%) faced various hurdles while going through their research; surprisingly all the trainees conducting research in field of pharmacology faced various barriers during research process. Out of 67 (31.0%) postgraduate trainees in dentistry, 60 (90%) reported various barriers (p= 0.03).

Conclusion: Quality conduction of health research affected by barriers is experienced by majority of medical researchers and trainees during their postgraduate training. The majority of the postgraduate trainees conducting research from clinical fields face more effects on their research conducting quality as compared to the basic sciences researchers.

Recommendation: Quality assessment protocol should be incorporated during research conducting process. Actions should be taken for reducing the barriers related to HRC quality. Collaborative health research amongst clinical and basic sciences fields can be done to improve the quality.