Measurement of critical thinking dispositions and comparison of critical approaches to information sources in medical residents: A cross-sectional study*

Objective: Critical thinking is the questioning of whether the information presented is real, reliable, evidence-based and unbiased. It provides a deeper understanding of the information and reaches the right conclusions by eliminating biases, erroneous and false data. Our study aimed to measure the critical thinking dispositions of medical residents and to determine the effect of this ability on the evaluation of the reliability of information sources. Methods: Our cross-sectional study was conducted with the participation of 197 medical residents from different branches working in Adana City Training & Research Hospital after ethical approval. Sociodemographic data, results of the critical thinking disposition scale and data obtained after the evaluation of two different information sources using the DISCERN measurement tool were analyzed. Results: Among the participants, 171 (86.8%) were working in clinical sciences and 26 (13.2%) were working in surgery. The mean score of the critical thinking disposition scale was 43.52±5.49. The mean scores of the Critical Openness subscale (27.51±3.65) and reflective skepticism (16.02±2.44) subscales were found to be significantly higher (p