Assessment of knowledge and attitude toward informed consent and assent for biomedical research involving children among health-care professionals in Belagavi city: A questionnaire study.

BACKGROUND: Most of the nations have proposed research regulations to protect the rights and welfare of the research participants. Among such regulations are the informed consent and assent. In the present world, informed consent and assent is the cornerstone in health practice. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To compare and evaluate the knowledge and attitude toward informed consent and assent for biomedical research involving children among health-care professionals in Belagavi city. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among 300 house surgeons divided into four groups of Medical, Dental, Nursing, and Ayurveda faculty of Belagavi city. A self-administered multiple choice questions were used to evaluate the knowledge and a five-point Likert scale was used to asses attitude regarding informed consent and assent for research involving children. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: There was statistically significant difference in mean knowledge and attitude among all four groups (P < 0.05), and there was no significant correlation between knowledge and attitude as a whole in each group of professionals (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Emphasis on additional training is the need of the hour for all the faculty participants and also incorporation of study material regarding informed consent and assent for research involving children by the policy makers.