TY - JOUR
T1 - Knowledge of evidence-based research methodology amongst orthodontic postgraduate residents in four universities
T2 - An international survey
AU - Papageorgiou, Spyridon N.
AU - Koletsi, Despina
AU - Patcas, Raphael
AU - Seehra, Jadbinder
AU - Cobourne, Martyn T.
AU - Will, Leslie A.
AU - Eliades, Theodore
N1 - Funding Information:
the authors would like to thank Demetrios Halazonetis (University of Athens) for his assistance in students? recruitment and delivery of the questionnaires.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Aim: The aim of this international survey was to assess knowledge concerning the design, conduct, critical appraisal and synthesis of clinical studies among senior orthodontic postgraduate residents. Materials and methods: Senior postgraduate residents from four universities in Europe and the United States were invited to complete a custom questionnaire. The overall correct answer score and proportion of residents correctly answering each of the 10 questions within the survey were analysed with descriptive statistics, analysis-of-variance, chi-squares test and linear regression at 5%. Results: A total of 46 residents with mean age of 30.4 years scored an overall % correct score of 48.8% ± 13.8%, with the % of correct answers to each question ranging from 7 to 89%. The worst-answered questions pertained to correctly characterizing sensitivity and specificity (7%), number needed to treat (9%), credibility of trial synthesis in meta-analysis (35%) and publication bias (37%). The vast majority of postgraduate students could correctly identify entities that can be blinded in a randomized trial (89%), statistical power of a trial (74%) and proper methods for random allocation sequence (67%). No statistically significant differences were found among the four included universities, while residents having obtained another degree apart from dentistry scored better than others (+9.5%; 95% confidence interval: 0.6% to 18.5%; P = 0.04). Conclusions: Postgraduate residents in orthodontics possessed moderate knowledge on evidence-based methodology. Efforts should be reinforced to assimilate research methodology perspectives in the postgraduate curricula of universities, in order to further augment critical training of orthodontic specialists.
AB - Aim: The aim of this international survey was to assess knowledge concerning the design, conduct, critical appraisal and synthesis of clinical studies among senior orthodontic postgraduate residents. Materials and methods: Senior postgraduate residents from four universities in Europe and the United States were invited to complete a custom questionnaire. The overall correct answer score and proportion of residents correctly answering each of the 10 questions within the survey were analysed with descriptive statistics, analysis-of-variance, chi-squares test and linear regression at 5%. Results: A total of 46 residents with mean age of 30.4 years scored an overall % correct score of 48.8% ± 13.8%, with the % of correct answers to each question ranging from 7 to 89%. The worst-answered questions pertained to correctly characterizing sensitivity and specificity (7%), number needed to treat (9%), credibility of trial synthesis in meta-analysis (35%) and publication bias (37%). The vast majority of postgraduate students could correctly identify entities that can be blinded in a randomized trial (89%), statistical power of a trial (74%) and proper methods for random allocation sequence (67%). No statistically significant differences were found among the four included universities, while residents having obtained another degree apart from dentistry scored better than others (+9.5%; 95% confidence interval: 0.6% to 18.5%; P = 0.04). Conclusions: Postgraduate residents in orthodontics possessed moderate knowledge on evidence-based methodology. Efforts should be reinforced to assimilate research methodology perspectives in the postgraduate curricula of universities, in order to further augment critical training of orthodontic specialists.
KW - Clinical studies
KW - Educational assessment
KW - Epidemiologic research design
KW - Evidence-based dentistry
KW - Orthodontics
KW - Questionnaire
KW - Survey
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123619146&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ortho.2022.100609
DO - 10.1016/j.ortho.2022.100609
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85123619146
SN - 1761-7227
VL - 20
JO - International Orthodontics
JF - International Orthodontics
IS - 1
M1 - 100609
ER -