Gender Differences in Attitude and Barriers to Research by Medical Undergraduate Students in Nigeria

Autor: Kenechukwu Franklin Okwunze, Efosa Peace Iyawe, Ifunanya Prosper Agughalam, Aisha Yahya, Priscilla Awoyomi, Emmanuel Metajuwa-kuda, Caroline Anulika Nwamadiegesi, Mayomikun Olawale, Stephen Igwe
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: International Journal of Medical Students (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2076-6327
DOI: 10.5195/ijms.2022.1795
Popis: Background. Medical research, one of the pillars of medical education plays a crucial impact in advancing healthcare by improving the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of illnesses. It is important to ensure that medical students and early career physicians are involved to research outside the curriculum at an early stage of training. This early involvement has been widely known to increase one’s likelihood of building a career in research. In Nigeria, the gender composition of research personnel in universities is alarming as less than a quarter are female. There is a need to describe the factors responsible for this imbalance in order to inform stakeholders on where actionable measures can be taken. Aim To examine the gender differences in the attitude towards research, willingness to undertake research, and barriers to research reported by undergraduate clinical students in Nigeria. Methods Six hundred and seventy-two (672) undergraduate medical students in their fourth to sixth years of study in seven selected medical schools across Nigeria completed an electronic survey in August 2022. The survey which was hosted on REDCap was adapted from published works which addressed a similar scope and comprised of 56 items divided into five sections. Gender differences in research experience, willingness to participate in research, attitude towards research and barriers that hinder participation in research were explored using a chi-square test. Variables were collected using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to agree with a “neutral midpoint” and SPSS version 25 was used in the analysis. Results Although an equal proportion of male and female students reported voluntary involvement in research, 56.2% of male students and 28.8% of female students perceived research as exciting and enjoyable (p
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals