Medical Students’ Attitudes and Influential Factors Towards Conducting Medical Research

Abstract

Background: Medical research has become an essential part of medical students’ curricula at several medical colleges in Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to assess medical students' attitudes and identify factors influencing their willingness to conduct medical research. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2021 and April 2022 using the students' attitudes towards research and the students’ perceived influential factors toward participating in research activities questionnaires. A 5-Likert scale to calculate the average of the students’ responses, where 5 indicated ‘strongly agree’ and 1 indicated ‘strongly disagree’.  The survey was distributed to medical students at the College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Saudi Arabia. Results: A total of 500 responses were collected from the students (67.2% male and 32.8% female). Most students agreed with the following statement: ‘Research is important for identifying and investigating problems in a subject matter’ (N=399, 79.8%). More than half of the students agreed with the following statement: ‘I am very interested in participating in research activities at the undergraduate level’ (N=318, 63.6%). The top three influential factors for conducting medical research were ‘to facilitate entry into competitive residency programs’, followed by ‘interest in specific research fields or medical topics’ and ‘to improve curriculum vitae (CV).’ Conclusion: The majority of the surveyed students showed a positive attitude towards conducting medical research in King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Saudi Arabia. Most students conduct research to gain a competitive edge and explore specialties of interest.