Barriers to clinical research in Africa, a quantitative and qualitative survey of 27 African countries

Conradie, Aletta

Barriers to clinical research in Africa, a quantitative and qualitative survey of 27 African countries

Master Thesis

2019

Abstract

Background There is a need for high quality research to improve perioperative patient care in Africa. The aim of this study was to understand the particular barriers to clinical research in this environment. Methods Electronic survey of African Surgical Outcomes Study (ASOS) investigators, including 29 quantitative Likert scale questions and eight qualitative questions with subsequent thematic analysis. Protocol compliant and non-compliant countries were compared according to the WHO statistics for research and development, health workforce data and world internet statistics. Results Responses were received from 134/418 invited researchers in 24/25 (96%) participating countries, and three non-participating countries. Barriers included the lack of a dedicated research team (47.7%), reliable internet access (32.6%), staff skilled in research (31.8%) and team commitment (23.8%). Protocol compliant countries had significantly more physicians per 1000 population (4 vs 0.9 p<0.01), internet penetration (38% vs 28% p=0.01) and published clinical trials (1461 vs 208 p<0.01) compared to non-compliant countries. Facilitators of research included establishing a research culture (86.9%), simple data collection tools (80%) and ASOS team interaction (77.9%). Most participants are interested in future research (93.8%). Qualitative data reiterated human resource, financial resource, and regulatory barriers. However, the desire to contribute to an African collaboration producing relevant data to improve patient outcomes, was expressed strongly by the ASOS investigators. Conclusions: Barriers to successful participation in ASOS related to resource limitations and not the motivation of clinician investigators. Practical solutions to individual barriers may increase the success of multi-centre perioperative research in Africa.