Knowledge, attitude, and practice of health-care ethics among doctors in Tamil Nadu - A cross-sectional study

Background: Proficiency in medical ethics is central to valuable patient care. The current medical education gives limited help in dealing with the ethical dilemmas. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of health-care ethics among doctors in Tamil Nadu. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study covering all doctors on payroll (171) as on August 1, 2018, was carried out in August 2018 at Government Tiruvannamalai Medical College. A total of 165 doctors were contacted and 148 questionnaires were collected back. The pre-tested questionnaire comprised 44 questions. Approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee was obtained. SPSS version 22 was used to analyze data. Association between sociodemographic variables and attitude, practice of the doctors toward the health-care ethics was compared using Chi-square test. Results: About 87.8% of respondents were aware of the definition of health-care ethics. About 78.4% of respondents knew the duties of ethical committee. Books and journals were the source of knowledge for 66.2% of respondents. About 52% of the respondents preferred to consult their guide/head of department when they faced an ethical/legal issue. Nearly 60% were aware of existence of ethical committee. About 62.2% of the respondents had positive attitude toward health-care ethics. About 69% of the respondents had good practice of health-care ethics. Age group, sex, specialty, and duration of work experience had no significant association with attitude toward health-care ethics. Age group had significant correlation with practice while sex, specialty, and duration of work experience did not. Conclusion: Nine-tenth of respondents were aware of the definition of health-care ethics. Three-fourth was aware of duties of ethical committee. Nearly two-third of the respondents had positive attitude toward health-care ethics. More than two-third of the respondents had good practice of health-care ethics.