Attitude and Practice of Evidence-Based Medicine: Exploring the Responses of Primary Healthcare Physicians to Evidence Based Practice, in Some Suburban Areas of Saudi Arabia

Background: Primary health care (PHC) physicians have significant effect on determining the level and quality of provided medical care. Old medical practices depended on unsystematic observations from clinical experiences. Understanding the pathophysiologic principles of disease, common sense and clinical experience were used as a means for building and maintaining knowledge of patient management. According to this paradigm, clinicians had a number of options for sorting out clinical problems, which often weren’t based on evidence. In addition, this traditional continuous of medical education doesn’t work in improving professional practice. Objective: In order to apply increase the awareness of the importance of applying evidence-based medicine in primary health care physicians, we have conducted this study to explore such physicians attitude, perception, knowledge and applica-tion barriers facing them. Method: A survey study was conducted on all PHC phy-sicians of 15 centers selected randomly from 3 main sectors were proved to be used. A questionnaire was designed to assess the respondents attitude towards evidence-based med-icine (EBM) there, ability to access and interpret evidence, facing barriers to practice EBM, and the best way to shift from opinion based to evidence based medicine. In addition, assessment of attitude and awareness of physicians towards EBM has been done. Results: Study results have revealed high mean score for attitude towards applying EBM (61.76%). And even a higher mean score for the significance of management of patients (71.96%). In addition 79.8% of General Practitioners (GPs) have confirmed that practicing EBM can improve patients care. The mean score of adoption of EBM by already overloaded GPs was 47.45%. Conclusion: From this study we can conclude that there is an urgent need to improve physician’s skills in researching the evidence in practice, with the recommendation to encourage the GPs to develop local EB guidelines, and to provide computer facilities and conduct small workshops of EBM at the primary health care centers.