The effectiveness of educational workshops in improving the knowledge and attitude of attendees in laboratory animal science: A pre- and post-intervention design in Iran

Abstract

The knowledge and attitude of researchers can affect the validity of laboratory animal (LAN) research. However, studies show that not all researchers possess the required knowledge and appropriate attitude for performing valid research on animals. This may have several reasons, such as high heterogeneity in the educational backgrounds of researchers in animal trials. In this study, we hypothesized that properly designed intensive educational intervention could improve the knowledge and attitude of a mixed population of researchers, regardless of their heterogeneity. We delivered 10 country-wide two-day LAN workshops for academic members, postgraduate students and members of the ethics committees of the medical universities in Iran. Using pre-/post-intervention design, we found that the intervention highly significantly (p < 0.001) improved the knowledge score (from 2.96 ± 1.483 to 4.63 ± 1.548 mean ± SD; range: 0–8; n = 236) and attitude score (from 62.65 ± 5.160 to 65.57 ± 4.716; range: 14–70; N = 229). We also found that the educational intervention was significantly (p = 0.035) more effective to improve the knowledge of participants with more years of experience in LAN science. Unexpectedly, our younger participants (overall age range: 19–67 years old; mean ± SD: 37.96 ± 9.55) had lower initial attitude score. However, education was significantly (p = 0.002) more effective to improve the attitude score of younger participants. The knowledge and attitude improvements were not related to educational background, gender, history of prior attendance in LAN courses and amount of animal use. Attendees’ performance in the final assessment showed that they require more education on the ‘anesthesia/analgesia’ topic. They also declared a high interest in learning more on the design of LAN studies.