Patients' attitudes and knowledge toward clinical trial participation

Objective: The study objective was to investigate patients' attitudes toward clinical trial participation and the barriers to participation. We also aimed to estimate the proportion of patients willing to participate in clinical trials. Methods: We conducted a survey on patients who were scheduled to have minor or major surgery at King Abdulaziz University Hospital between May 2018 and December 2018. We used a questionnaire that comprised 27 multiple-choice questions to assess patients' attitudes and knowledge toward trial participation. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software. Results: We recruited 200 patients, of whom 123 (61.5%) were male; 129 patients (64.5%) agreed that they were knowledgeable about the importance of clinical researches, whereas 34 (17.0) reported that they had no knowledge about its importance. One-hundred and thirty-eight patients (69.0%) were positive about clinical trial participation, 30 patients (15.0%) were negative, and 32 (16.0%) had no opinion. There was no statistically significant association between patients' attitudes toward trial participation and age (P = 0.422) or gender (P = 0.066). Conversely, there was a statistically significant association between the level of education and patients' willingness to participate in clinical trials (P = 0.05). We found a statistically significant association between patients' perception of clinical trials in their community and age (P = 0.001) as well as educational level (P = 0.003). Conclusion: The findings suggest general support of clinical trials, with 69% of the patients willing to consider enrolling in a clinical trial.