Attitudes to evidence-based medicine of primary care physicians in Asir region, Saudi Arabia

A questionnaire survey was made of primary health care physicians in Asir region, Saudi Arabia in 1999 to explore their awareness of and attitude towards evidence-based medicine. The 272 respondents welcomed the principles of evidence-based medicine. Awareness and use of extracting journals, review publications and databases was low. Pharmaceutical company sponsored journals were the most commonly read. Bibliographic databases could only be accessed by 13% of respondents and the Internet by only 6%. There was only partial understanding of technical terms used in evidencebased medicine. Absence of a local library and increased patient workload were seen by most respondents as the main obstacles to practising evidence-based medicine.