Felicite NAAH T1,Anne-CécileZOUNG-KANYI B1,2
1Division of Health Operations Research; 2Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1
CaHReF 2018, Yaoundé Congres hall, 08 – 11 January 2019 ,OAQG002
Background: In Cameroon, since 2002, the legal framework for health research in humans is gradually being put in place with the creation and implementation of a national regulatory structure (DROS), the creation of the national ethics committee, the establishment and development of conditions for obtaining an Administrative Authorization of Research (AAR).
Objectif: to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of health professionals and researchers regarding regulatory provisions governing health research in Cameroon.
Methodology: Cross-sectional study conduct from the 14 to 24 of November 2016 combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. Structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews were conducted to 54 participants: researchers, health professionals in hospital, administrations, research centers and ethics committees. Qualitative data was analyzed using the ATLASTI version 6.3 while the qualitative data CSPro software.
The study obtained and approval, an exemption of review from the Ministry of Health:
Results: Recognition of the existence of regulatory provisions governing health research and roles of the regulatory authority; ethics committees. Some ethics committees didn't have complete knowledge of the policies governing their functioning.
81.2% of researchers had very good knowledge of the existing regulations against 80.41% for health professionals
57.14% understood the need for ethical approval in case of protocol change or amendments while 28.57 did not know. While 32.43% of health professional s felt AAR is not necessary to conduct research in their facility.
91.07% systematical requested for ethical approval for their research (good attitude) from required IRB.
Conclusion/Recommandation: The existing governing framework for health research should be disseminated to hopefully inculcate the research communities, and health facilities of the need to adhere to bioethics norms in all research involving human subjects.
It is important to disseminate all regulatory documents to every level of the health system.
For ethics committees it is eminent that session programming be revisited in order to facilitate the process of ethical approval.
Key Words: research, governance–policies, regulations, adherence, ethics.