ArticlePloS one2023
Barriers to conducting independent quantitative research in low-income countries: A cross-sectional study of public health graduate students in Liberia.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- GroupStruct2: A User-Friendly Graphical User Interface for Statistical and Visual Support in Species Diagnosis.Systematic biology · 2026Article
- Research utilization competency development in the health workforce pipeline: Design and formative evaluation of learning objectives for health professions students.Health research policy and systems · 2024Article
- Addressing data quality issues to assess clinical and epidemiological risk factors for COVID-19 among documented cases in Liberia: a single-centre, retrospective, observational study.BMJ public health · 2024Article
- Enhancing quantitative capacity for the health sector in post-Ebola Liberia, a tracer study of a locally developed and owned coding and biostatistics program.F1000Research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionDuring recent disease outbreaks, quantitative research has been used to investigate intervention scenarios while accounting for local epidemiological, social, and clinical context. Despite the value of such work, few documented research efforts have been observed to originate from low-income countries. This study aimed to assess barriers that may be limiting the awareness and conduct of quantitative research among Liberian public health graduate students.
methodsA semi-structured questionnaire was administered September-November 2021 to Master's in Public Health (MPH) students in Liberia. Potential barriers around technology access, understanding of quantitative science, and availability of mentorship were interrogated. Associations between barriers and self-reported likelihood of conducting quantitative research within six months of the investigation period were evaluated using ordinal logistic regression.
resultsAmong 120 participating MPH students, 86% reported owning a personal computer, but 18.4% and 39.4% had machines with malfunctioning hardware and/or with battery power lasting ≤2 hours, respectively. On average, students reported having poor internet network 3.4 days weekly. 47% reported never using any computer software for analysis, and 46% reported no specific knowledge on statistical analysis. Students indicated spending a median 30 minutes per week reading scientific articles. Moreover, 50% had no access to quantitative research mentors. Despite barriers, 59% indicated they were very likely to undertake quantitative research in the next 6 months; only 7% indicated they were not at all likely. Computer ownership was found to be statistically significantly associated with higher likelihood of conducting quantitative research in the multivariable analysis (aOR: 4.90,95% CI: 1.54-16.3).
conclusionThe high likelihood of conducting quantitative research among MPH students contrasts with limitations around computing capacity, awareness of research tools/methods, and access to mentorship. To promote rigorous analytical research in Liberia, there is a need for systematic measures to enhance capacity for diverse quantitative methods through efforts sensitive to the local research environment.
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