Table 9.
Descriptive statistics of the study participants’ demographic and professional characteristics
| Characteristics | N | % |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | ||
| Male | 153 | 50.8 |
| Female | 148 | 49.2 |
| Age in years | ||
| 30 | 46 | 15.3 |
| 31–40 | 103 | 34.2 |
| 41–50 | 100 | 33.2 |
| > 50 | 52 | 17.3 |
| Nationality | ||
| Saudi | 188 | 62.5 |
| Non-Saudi | 113 | 37.5 |
| Level of education | ||
| Bachelor | 65 | 21.6 |
| Masters | 144 | 47.8 |
| Doctorate or Ph.D | 53 | 17.6 |
| Subspecialty or Fellowship | 39 | 13.0 |
| Medical education graduates | ||
| Saudi Arabia | 89 | 29.6 |
| Arab countries | 43 | 14.3 |
| Europe | 60 | 19.9 |
| North America | 72 | 23.9 |
| Other | 37 | 12.3 |
| Occupation | ||
| Consultant | 78 | 25.9 |
| Assistant consultant | 62 | 20.6 |
| Fellow | 21 | 7.0 |
| Resident | 18 | 6.0 |
| Pharmacist | 31 | 10.3 |
| Faculty | 5 | 1.7 |
| Nurse | 51 | 16.9 |
| Other | 35 | 11.6 |
| Training in Human Research Subjects’ Protection ethics, yes | 235 | 78.1 |
| Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines | 208 | 88.5 |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Ethics | 151 | 64.2 |
| Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Program | 22 | 9.4 |
| The Saudi National Committee of Bioethics (NCBE) certification | 91 | 38.7 |
| The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Clinical Trials Network | 24 | 10.2 |
| Principal investigator | ||
| Yes | 239 | 79.4 |
| No | 62 | 20.6 |
| Co-investigator | ||
| Yes | 283 | 94.0 |
| No | 18 | 6.0 |
| How well do you know the “World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects”? | ||
| Excellent knowledge | 74 | 24.6 |
| Very good knowledge | 93 | 30.9 |
| Average knowledge | 86 | 28.6 |
| Very little knowledge | 32 | 10.6 |
| I don’t know what the Declaration of Helsinki is | 16 | 5.3 |
| How well do you know the regulations of the law of ethics of research on living creatures issued by “The Saudi National Committee of Bioethics (NCBE)”? | ||
| Excellent knowledge | 59 | 19.6 |
| Very good knowledge | 91 | 30.2 |
| Average knowledge | 65 | 21.6 |
| Very little knowledge | 52 | 17.3 |
| I am not aware of the Saudi National Committee of Bioethics | 34 | 11.3 |
| Ethical guideline knowledge | ||
| Yes | 210 | 69.8 |
| No | 91 | 30.2 |
| Research experience, median (IQRa) | 10 | (16 – 6) |
| Number of publications, median (IQR) | 14 | (27 – 6) |
| Total knowledge score | ||
| Mean (SD) | 52.4 | (4.4) |
| Median (IQR) | 52.0 | (55.0 – 48.0) |
| Total opinion score | 52.4 | |
| Mean (SD) | 42.5 | (4.4) |
| Median (IQR) | 43.0 | (45.5 – 40.0) |
aIQR Interquartile range