ABSTRACT
The objective of this project was to study the attitude and general knowledge of Medical students at Khon Kaen University (KKU), Thailand concerning cigarrette smoking. The study examines the relationship between knowledge, attitude to smoking and smoking habits. Certain socio-economic factors known to infulence smoking behaviour were controlled in this study. The population used in this research was the medical students studying in the first and fifth years in the faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Thailand during the academic year 1987-1988. A total number of 145 responses were returned out of possible 192. The questionnaires were analysed and the chisquared test was used to test the hypothesis. The study shows that most medical students are nonsmokers with less females smoking than males. A relationship was found between knowledge of the effects of smoking and year of study. Fifth year students have greater knowledge than the first years. A relationship was also found between attitude and year of study; the first year medical students had a better attitude than the fifth years. In addition, it was discovered that some specific combinations of attitude and opinion have a relationship with smoking habits (non-smokers, daily and occasionally smokers) at a significance level of P
ABSTRACT
Background: The Faculty of Medicine annually allocates its own budget for research grant but the numbers of research publication each year in the previous study was only 21.5%Objective: To study and improve the supportive system for research publication within the Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University.Setting: The Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University.Design: Descriptive studyMethods: The sequences of the study included; phase 1) reviewed proposals granted by the Faculty of Medicine between the years 2002- 2004 and then a structured questionnaire was sent to all principal investigators; phase 2) problems related to research publication were analyzed after discussed with a focus group who were involved in research activities; phase 3) reported the problems to the Faculty’s administrative board; and phase 4) Post-evaluation after supportive system changed. Outcome measures: Numbers of proposal granted, total amount of the budget funded, numbers and factors related to research publication were recorded.Results: During the studied period there were 204 proposals granted with amounted to 11,567,715 Baht. Only 71 proposals (34.8%) of the researcher could finish their work within 1- 3 years after granting and made the final report to the Faculty. Thirty –six out of 71 proposals (17.6% of granted proposal) were submitted for publication, where 32 have not prepared the manuscript. Most of non-publication (75%) grants were done by postgraduate students. The existing supportive system for publication within the faculty includes; institutional journal (in Thai), English consultant, page charge fee, and reward prize for index journal publication. The administrative board of the Faculty responded to the reported problems by improving the supportive system, however, changing for research publication may take times.Conclusion: The Faculty of Medicine has a completed supportive system for publication but only 17.6% of granted proposals were submitted for publication. Most of non-publication was postgraduate students. The Faculty now is doing some changes of supportive system that might raise the number of publication.Keyword: research funding system, research utilization, publication