Alotaibi Wejdan Abdulraheem, Alosaimi Ameera Mishal, Alsulaimani Nada Hamed
Department of Family Medicine, Taif University School of Medicine, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
Prince Mansour Military Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
J Family Med Prim Care. 2022 Nov;11(11):7015-7023. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1146_22. Epub 2022 Dec 16.
It is essential for practicing clinicians to have core knowledge of biostatistics. However, surveys indicated that clinicians' attitudes towards biostatistics are negative. Despite its importance, little is known about the knowledge of and attitudes towards statistics among trainees in family medicine, particularly in Saudi Arabia. The current investigation attempts to evaluate knowledge and attitudes held by family medicine trainees in Taif and explore their correlates.
This was a descriptive, questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study of residents in family medicine training programme in Taif, Saudi Arabia. We used Poisson regression modelling to evaluate the effect of background factors on knowledge and attitudes towards biostatistics.
The study included 113 family medicine trainees at different levels of training. Only 36 (31.9%) of the participating trainees expressed positive attitudes towards biostatistics. On the other hand, 30 (26.5%) participating trainees were found to have good biostatistics knowledge, compared to 83 (73.5%) trainees whose knowledge level was found to be poor. Upon adjusting for all background factors simultaneously, only younger age, level R4 training, publishing one or three papers were found to be associated with poorer attitudes towards biostatistics. Older age was associated with worsening of attitudes (adjusted odds = 0.9900, = 0.00924), and so also was being a senior R4 trainee (adjusted odds = 0.9045, = 0.01301). Publishing one paper (compared to publishing over three papers) was associated with poorer attitudes towards biostatistics (adjusted odds = 0.8857, = 0.03525). Also, having published three papers (compared to publishing over three papers) was still associated with worse attitudes towards biostatistics (adjusted odds = 0.8528, = 0.01318).
The main finding of our current study is the poor level of knowledge and overtly negative attitudes held by family medicine trainees in Taif towards biostatics. Knowledge was particularly poor about advanced statistical concepts such as survival analysis and linear regression modelling. However, poor levels of knowledge about biostatistics could be a function of poor research productivity among family medicine trainees. Age, seniority in training and involvement in research also impacted positively on attitudes towards biostatistics. Therefore, it is recommended that the training curriculum for family medicine trainees should first cover essential biostatistics in a creative and accessible way and secondly encourage engagement research and publication from an early stage of training.
对于执业临床医生来说，掌握生物统计学的核心知识至关重要。然而，调查显示临床医生对生物统计学的态度是消极的。尽管生物统计学很重要，但对于家庭医学实习生，尤其是沙特阿拉伯的实习生，他们对统计学的知识和态度却知之甚少。当前的调查旨在评估塔伊夫家庭医学实习生的知识和态度，并探索其相关因素。
这是一项基于问卷的描述性横断面研究，对象是沙特阿拉伯塔伊夫家庭医学培训项目的住院医师。我们使用泊松回归模型来评估背景因素对生物统计学知识和态度的影响。
该研究纳入了113名处于不同培训水平的家庭医学实习生。只有36名（31.9%）参与调查的实习生对生物统计学持积极态度。另一方面，发现30名（26.5%）参与调查的实习生具备良好的生物统计学知识，而83名（73.5%）实习生的知识水平较差。在同时对所有背景因素进行调整后，发现只有年龄较小、处于R4培训水平、发表过一篇或三篇论文与对生物统计学的较差态度相关。年龄较大与态度变差相关（调整后的比值比=0.9900，P=0.0
