Assessing training needs in health research ethics: a case study from the University of Zambia School of Medicine

Figures & data

Table 1. Distribution of respondents by name of department and rank, University of Zambia, School of Medicine.

Department	Primary rank				Total
	Lecturer	Senior lecturer	Associate professor	Full professor
Biomedical sciences	3	0	1	0	4
Physiological sciences	3	0	0	1	4
Public health	15	0	1	1	17
Nursing sciences	8	8	0	0	16
Physiotherapy	3	4	1	0	8
Surgery	1	2	0	1	4
Psychiatry	1	3	0	0	4
Paediatrics	1	0	0	1	2
Pathology and microbiology	2	3	0	1	6
Internal medicine	1	0	0	0	1
Anatomy	1	1	0	0	2
Pharmacy	7	0	0	0	7
Total	46	21	3	5	75

Figure 1. Ethics training received by Faculty Members at University of Zambia, School of Medicine (n = 54).

Note: Some participants had received more than one type of training.

Table 2. Relationship between a history of ethics training and other factors.

Title	Number	Crude odds ratio (95%CI)	p value	Adjusted odds ratio OR (95%CI)	p value
Rank
Lecturer	46	1		1
Senior lecturer	21	3.85 (0.99, 15.0)	0.051	–
Professor	8	1.93 (0.35, 10.6)	0.451	–
Number of publications
0–5	30	1		1
6–10	16	19.6 (2.29, 168.3)	0.007	8.73 (2.09, 36.39)	0.003
>10	27	10.5 (2.5, 42.5)	0.001	20.4 (2.30, 181.30)	0.007
Capacity to guide students in research ethics
No	25	1		1
Yes	50	0.23 (0.08, 0.65)	0.006	–
Capacity to guide students in research methods
No	22	1		1
Yes	53	0.29 (0.10, 0.84)	0.022	0.35 (0.10, 1.27)	0.11
Basic science researcher
No	55	1		1
Yes	18	0.94 (0.29, 3.06)	0.915	–
Behavioral science researcher
No	60	1		1
Yes	13	1.72 (0.49, 6.03)	0.398	–
Epidemiological or clinical researcher
No	18	1		1
Yes	55	0.39 (0.13, 1.18)	0.096	–

Table 3. Perceptions of Faculty Members at the University of Zambia, School of Medicine about the importance of research ethics.

	n	%
Research ethics is important to research participants
Strongly Disagree	–	–
Disagree	–	–
Neutral	2	2.7
Agree	2	2.7
Strongly Agree	71	94.7
Research ethics is well understood in Zambia
Strongly Disagree	32	42.7
Disagree	19	25.3
Neutral	17	22.7
Agree	5	6.7
Strongly Agree	2	2.7
Research ethics is only applicable to clinical trial research
Strongly Disagree	61	81.3
Disagree	5	6.7
Neutral	3	4.0
Agree	2	2.7
Strongly Agree	4	5.3

Table 4. Perceived preparedness of Faculty Members in supervising students in research methods and ethics of student protocols.

	Research methods		Ethical considerations
	n	%	n	%
Prepared	53	70.7	19	25.3
Neutral	16	21.3	31	41.3
Unprepared	6	8.0	25	33.3
Total	75	100.0	75	100.0