Investigating Awareness of Dental Residents and Professors of the Ethical Standards in Dental Researches
Author(s): Sahar Vardian Tehrani*, Shima Bazmi, Shabnam Bazmi, Mehrzad Kiani and Saedeh Atarbashi-Moghadam
Abstract
Background
Awareness of ethical standards and their application in conducting research is necessary because ignoring ethical issues may not only cause harm to the subjects but also lead to research ineffectiveness. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the awareness of dental residents and professors of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran, of the ethical standards in medical research.
Methodology
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that was performed using a validated researcher-made questionnaire. In this study, 53 professors and 74 residents of different dental specialties participated. The data were analyzed using statistical tests and SPSS 21.00 software.
Findings
The male, female ratio in professors was 41.5% to 58.5% , while 62.2% of residents were female and 37.8% male. Regarding awareness of medical ethics, 66% of professors and 85% of residents selected the correct answers for the questions. The mean and standard deviation of professors' and residents’ awareness were 0.5606±0.16230 and 0.6542±0.17693, from source1. Also, the levels of residents' and professors’ awareness of the ethical standards in medical research were 0.65 and 0.59, respectively, using Levene’s Test and considering the significance level of p=0.041. In professors’ part the lowest score belonged to “Written consent is required in intervention research” and in residents’ part the lowest one was about “In some cases, prisoners can be promised a reduced sentence as a reward for their cooperation in conducting a research project”.
Conclusion
Professors and dental residents had acceptable awareness of the ethics in medical research, and the level of awareness was higher in dental residents compared to professors. There was no significant difference in the awareness of dental residents of the ethical standards in dental research by age, gender, and field of specialty. Also, there was no significant difference in the awareness of dental professors by age, gender, specialty, years of service, and participation in the research project or dissertation. Obtaining consent for performing research and paying more attention to vulnerable groups during research projects are items that must be mentioned more.