Perception of Medical Students Regarding Clinical Trials and Its Impact After Educational Intervention – A Questionnaire-Based Study

Background and Aims: Clinical trials are gold standard for research and evaluating the efficacy and safety of healthcare interventions. Teaching about clinical trials is part of the pharmacology curriculum for undergraduate medical students. The aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and perception (KAP) of undergraduate medical students towards clinical trial. Methodology: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted at a medical college of Ahmedabad, using standardised self-administered questionnaires having total 25 questions regarding KAP, prepared by the authors. The pre- and post-KAP questionnaires (after educational intervention) were offered to the participants after taking an informed consent. Analysis was done using SPSS software, version 26. P value <.05 was considered as significant. Results: We surveyed 212 medical students; there was an improvement in the overall scores of knowledge domain from 79.67 to 92.19%, about 31.44% improvement in the attitude toward clinical trial and 78.17-91.12% improvement in the perception. There was improvement in median score of 84.76% in having ‘sufficient’ knowledge, 91.18% in having ‘positive’ attitude and 91.63% of respondents having ‘favourable’ perception, regarding clinical trials. Conclusion: The results of this study depict the intervention has enhanced KAP regarding clinical trial among the medical students. The medical undergraduates are future innovators, clinicians and scientific explorers. It would be better if they are trained at earlier days of learning about clinical trials/research and medical ethics to ensure that future medical students receive better training in understanding and conducting clinical trials.