MEDICAL RESEARCH IN KAZAKHSTAN AS PERCEIVED BY RESEARCHERS, HEALTH MANAGERS AND PRACTICING PHYSICIANS

The state of health research in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States has been called as drastic in a recent evaluation. Several efforts have been made to break isolation of Kazakhstan from international medical research, education and practice. We studied how researchers, health managers and practicing physicians perceive the current status of medical research in Kazakhstan. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed at 3 research institutes, 3 research centers and 2 clinics in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan. Altogether, 207 (99 %) employees involved in research participated and were interviewed by the first author. Researchers, health managers and physicians comprised 63.8 %, 16.4 % and 19.8 % of the sample. Categorical data were analyzed using chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests. Results: Although 38 % of the participants had the highest research degrees, less than 1% of the sample had international publications. More than three thirds of researchers reported unsatisfactory transparency of financing research compared to health managers and physicians (P. < 0.001). Considerable variability between the groups was observed in the perception of the agreement between the research conducted and health needs of the vulnerable groups (P. < 0.001). Researchers were more likely to report unsatisfactory career opportunities in research than other studied groups (P. = 0.025). Conclusions: The perception of our responders of the current state of health research in Kazakhstan raise concerns about the quality of doctoral degrees without international publications, transparency of funding and agreement between the research conducted and real health needs in the country and existing conditions for disseminating and implementation of the results of health research in practice.