Assessing Awareness, Attitude, Knowledge of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Among the Ambulatory Care Physicians and Its Reflection on Their Prescriptions Pattern, 3 Centers at Al-Kharj Hospitals, Saudi Arabia

Background: Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) can be defined as “the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patients’ values”. It is the best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The growing awareness of the limitations of traditional information on clinical decisions led to a shift in medical practice from unsystematic observations from clinical experience, towards evidence-based medicine. The principles of evidence-based medicine have become core concepts of undergraduate, postgraduate, continuing medical education, courses, and workshops offered to health professionals. Irrational prescription being a global problem leading to ineffective or unsafe treatment and that sometimes resulting from the lack of using the EBM. Objective: To assess awareness, attitude, knowledge of EBM among the ambulatory care physicians and its effect in their prescriptions pattern. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was done to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding evidence-based medicine among ambulatory care physicians in 3 hospitals in the Al-Kharj region. In addition, a random sample of ambulatory care prescriptions were collected, then the World Health Organization (WHO) prescription indicators were used to evaluate the physicians prescribing behavior. The prescriptions were collected from the pharmacy department after obtaining approval from the hospital director for each hospital. Result: There was a positive attitude among the ambulatory physicians toward EBM (84%), but there were limit to the basic EBM knowledge (<50 %). Average number of medication encounter was out of the WHO standard value (>1.8%). The Barriers that faced the physicians were included Lack of time (47.7%) and no ready access to EBM (43.1%). The percentage of medications prescribe by generic name was varied between the hospitals, AKFAH (100%), AKMICH (90%) and PSABH (74.05%). Conclusion: In general, there was a positive attitude among the ambulatory physicians toward EBM. The frequent barriers that face the physician to apply EBM included lack of time, no ready access to EBM, and lack of reliable evidence. The attitude and knowledge have a proportion relation to WHO prescribing indicators. It was observed the hospital implement an electronic system were more compliant with prescribing with the generic name.