Knowledge, Awareness and Attitudes About Research Ethics among Faculty and Post Graduate Students of the Medical & Dental Professionals in Professional Institutions

Abstract

Introduction: The research ethics plays a very vital role in the collection, analysis, reporting and
publication of details about research subjects, in particular active acceptance of participant’s right to privacy,
confidentiality and the informed consent of the participant.
Aims: To assess the Knowledge, awareness and attitudes about research ethics among the faculty and
students of medical and dental colleges and the requirement for a regular teaching about research ethics
among the faculty and students of medical and dental colleges.
Materials and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted by assessing the responses to 39 selected
basic questions regarding Knowledge, awareness and attitudes about research ethics among a total of
415 faculty members and post graduate students of the medical and dental institutions in Mysore city of
Karnataka state. The online questionnaire was created by using Google forms. The questionnaire was made
into 5 categories. Chi-square tests was used to determine, in bivariate analyses, the association of each of the
independent variables. The students t-test was done to assess the respondents scores on the 5-point Likert
scale ranging from 1 to 5. The average of their scores were compared among the various variable like their
specialty and academic position by using the ANOVA test.
Results: A total of 415 responses were obtained from the participants of the study. The response tabulated
under various sections clearly showed deficiency in the understanding of research ethics. The P value was
kept at 0.05 for this study.
Conclusion: The participants of the questionnaire survey showed that the institutional ethics committees
would be very useful for promoting health research and are imperative for appraisal of the health research
projects. The requirement for a regular teaching about research ethics among the faculty and students of
medical and dental colleges is very important. Further study in this area is very much needed.