Assessment of the Study Habits of Residents in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Programs in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Residents in training must employ a variety of study strategies, as they not only participate in academic studies but also interact with patients. This study aimed to evaluate the study practices and factors affecting those practices among Saudi Arabian physical medicine and rehabilitation residents during their residency program. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a previously used questionnaire was distributed to Saudi Arabian physiatry residents from July 1 to August 15, 2022, via a social media platform and completed using a Google Forms survey. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet was used to collect, clean, and import the data before IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 22.0 was utilized for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The data of 94.91% of respondents were included in the analysis. Individuals who were female, unmarried or divorced, and without children predominated. Only 17.9% (n = 10) of the residents believed that their training program effectively prepared them to pass the board examination, which was the most strongly motivating factor for studying for 85.7% of respondents. Over two-thirds of the residents mentioned that they regularly exercise. Residents who studied more than 11 hours per week had a significantly lower score in the category of factors that negatively affect examination performance (M = 12.33 ± 2.82, F = 2.794, P < 0.05). Females, final-year residents, and Riyadh residents studied more than their counterparts. CONCLUSION: Our study is the first to investigate how Saudi physiatrists study, with the finding that current physiatry residents employ a combination of traditional and contemporary learning strategies. This information can help stakeholders to understand current training challenges, improve the quality of training for physiatry residents, and create an ideal learning environment.