Knowledge and attitudes towards the scientific investigation in medical students of a Private University of Costa Rica, 2015

Objetive: Inquiring about the knowledge and attitudes in the medicine's undergraduates have a high strategic interests to correct mistakes and implement actions in the politic of promoting to the investigation of a Medical School. Material and Method: It was performed a transversal and analytic study, which was applied a valid questionnaire about knowledge and attitudes related with the investigation to a representative sample of medical students from the University Hispanoamericana using the statistic program EpiDat version 4.1, with a confidence level of 95%, precision of 5%, considering one expected proportion of 53, 7% and a 15% of adjustment, it was obtained 233 of sample size. It was performed the analysis of the categorical and quantitative variables. Results: The 233 questionnaires were analyzed (58,4% women) with an average age of 21,7 years old +/- 4,2. Only a 17,6% refer to have assisted an extracurricular course of scientific investigation. A 14,6% of the survey respondents had a good knowledge level and 21,5% an adequate attitude towards the investigation, being more in women (62,7%). Having a good knowledge about investigation, it was associated to years attended, to have had an extracurricular investigation course and to belong an investigation group (p<0.05). Conclusion: the knowledge level about the investigation is deficient and the attitude to it is predominantly inadequate.