OUTPATIENTS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS CLINICAL RESEARCH AND RANDOMIZED CLINICAL-TRIALS

Objectives: To investigate the knowledge about randomized clinical tri als and the attitude towards clinical research among Danish outpatient s and to examine the relationships between outpatient demographic vari ables and knowledge and attitude. Setting: Outpatients (n=415) were re cruited from four departments at university hospital in Copenhagen. Me thods: The participants answered an 18 item multiple choice test evalu ating knowledge about randomized clinical trials and a 32 item Likert format questionnaire evaluating attitudes towards clinical research in general and randomized clinical trials. Assessment of scales for know ledge and attitudes was performed using Rasch analysis and Cronbach's alpha. Associations between demographic variables, knowledge score and attitude score were examined using analysis of variance. Results: Mea n age for all outpatients was 46 years (range 18-88 years); 251 (60%) were females. A total of 27 outpatients (7%) had previously participat ed in a randomized clinical trial. Mean knowledge score (number of cor rect answers out of a maximum of 17) was 7.9 (SD 3.1). Patients in the younger age groups and patients with longer education had significant ly higher knowledge scores (p<0.001);The effect of age group (estimate d increase in knowledge score relative to the group 60-89 years) was: 18-29 years 1.2 (SE 0.4); 30-39 years 2.0 (SE 0.4); and 40-59 years 1. 6 (SE 0.4). The effect of education (estimated decrease in knowledge s core relative to patients with >12 years of education) was: <7 years 3 .4 (SE 0.4); and 8-11 years 2.0 (SE 0.3). Mean total attitude score wa s 74.8 (SD 14.8) on a scale from 0-128. Compared to female patients, m ale patients had an estimated 5.1 points (SE 1.5) higher attitude scor e (p<0.001). There was a weak but significant positive association (r= 0.38; p<0.001) between the knowledge score and the total attitude scor e. Conclusion: Among Danish outpatients knowledge about randomized cli nical trials is better in the younger age groups and in individuals wi th longer education. Overall, better knowledge was associated with a m ore positive attitude towards clinical research. The question is wheth er it is possible by simple means to increase knowledge about clinical research and whether an increase in knowledge may positively affect t he attitude towards clinical research in individual patients.