Background: Health research training is an essential component of medical education and a vital exercise to help develop physician research skills.
Objectives: This study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards health research amongst the postgraduate students of Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences University of central India.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out from August to October 2012. A total of 116 postgraduate students were interviewed. Knowledge, attitude, and practices related to health research were assessed using a predesigned, pretested and validated questionnaire. Results were analyzed in the form of percentage and proportions whenever appropriate.
Results: In present study, the concept of research hypothesis was known to only 18.9% of the postgraduate students, whereas 17.2 and 21.5% students knew the full form of MEDLARS and MEDLINE respectively. Majority (91.4%) students believed that patient outcome improves with continued medical research and 70.7% are willing to participate in workshop for research methodology. Lack of time due to vast curriculum of postgraduate subjects (59.5%), lack of research curriculum (25%), and inadequate facilities (25.8%) were stated as major obstacles for pursuing research.
Conclusion: Postgraduate students have inadequate knowledge, but have positive attitudes towards health research. Postgraduate training and research facilities at the institution need to undergo major transformation in order to encourage meaningful research by postgraduate trainees.
Keywords: Knowledge; medical research; postgraduate students; practice.