Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on dental faculty members in Iran. To obtain a representative sample a stratified cluster random sampling approach was used. 8 dental schools were randomly selected from existing 17 public and 2 private schools in 2009. Self-administered questionnaires were used to gather data from faculty members on their use of high and low level evidence resources, studying scientific article habits, and frequency of reading articles. Demographic and educational information were also collected in the background part of the questionnaire. To test the association of gender and specialty with different components of search for evidence behavior Chi-square test was used. Also Pearson correlation test was conducted to assess association of other background characteristics with search for evidence behavior and multiple regression was also conducted.
Results: In total 377 dental faculty members returned completed questionnaires. Their mean age was 39±7.64 (min=27 and max=69) and also their mean years of research experience was 6.74±4.9. The most evidence resources used were textbooks (7.62±1.87) and original articles (6.73±1.97) according to visual analogue scale (VAS: range: 0-10). The least used source of evidence was Cochrane library 2.76±2.7 (VAS). Also 66.1% of faculties studied more than one scientific article in a week.
Conclusions: According to the results of this study, overall use of high level evidence resources was low. However, according to the positive correlations among search for evidence behavior components improving reading article, habits and knowledge may improve search for evidence behavior.