Knowledge and experience with cochrane and evidence based medicine among health professionals in Debreberhan Referral Hospital in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional survey

INTRODUCTION: Cochrane generates and disseminates high-quality systematic reviews through the cochrane library. We surveyed Ethiopian health professionals' knowledge and experience with cochrane, the cochrane library and Evidence Based Medicine (EBM). METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a convenient sample of health professionals in DebreBerhan Referral hospital in Ethiopia. Participants completed a pre-tested self-administered survey before EBM training. Data were analyzed using Fisher's exact or Chi-Squared test with Yates' correction. The strength of association between variables was quantified using odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: The response rate was 71.4% (35/49). Over half (54.3%) of the sample were males; 68.6% aged ≤ 30 years; 54.3% were physicians and 37.1% were nurses. Up to 65.7% had heard about Cochrane and only two knew cochrane South Africa as their reference centre. Nearly 48.6% were aware of the cochrane library, of whom 46% accessed it however; none used it for lacking awareness, search skills, access to internet and time constraints. Majority had a positive attitude towards EBM; 45.7% had heard of EBM; 74.3% rated their EBM knowledge as low; 74.3% lacked EBM training; and 88.6% were keen to attend EBM course. Adequate EBM knowledge was correlated with prior training (OR = 3.7, 95% CI 1.9-6.9, P<0.001], high self-assessment of EBM knowledge (OR = 0.27, 95% CI 0.14-0.51, P<0.001), male gender (P = 0.04), a positive attitude towards EBM (P = 0.001) and awareness of Cochrane (P = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Ethiopian health professionals have unmet training needs and want support through professional development workshops and an improved education system to provide high-quality evidence-based healthcare.