Acceptance of evidence based medicine (EBM) databases by Iranian medical residents using unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT)

Objective

Physicians often need uptodate, reliable and with easy access information for clinical decisions evidence based medicine (EBM) databases can be a suitable approach to meet this need. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, use and factors affecting the acceptance of EBM and its databases by Iranian medical residents using UTAUT model.

Method

The present research is an applied survey, the population of which consisted of 192 medical residents of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBUMS) in Iran. A questionnaire was used for collecting data and SPSS software was used for data analysis.

Results

The results show that the total average score of assistants (range?=?1–5), 2.99 and 2.73 scores were respectively obtained for the awareness and use of EBM databases. The study of factors affecting the acceptance using UTAUT showed that item "performance expectancy" with an average of 3.02 is the most important factor in the acceptance of EBM databases by medical residents and items "effort expectancy", "facilitating conditions" and "social influence" are in their next ranks with an average score of 2.54, 2.45 and 2.14, respectively.

Conclusion

The findings of this study showed that the majority of medical residents do not have sufficient awareness and knowledge about concepts of EBM and still not comprehend the necessity of using EBM databases. Therefore, planning for accepting and teaching Evidence based medicine and databases is essential.