Аңдатпа
Background 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. The aim of this study was to assess the opinion of researchers, health managers and practicing physicians about the current status of health research in Kazakhstan. Methods A cross-sectional survey was performed at 3 research institutes, 3 research centers and 2 randomly selected clinics in Almaty (former Alma-Ata). Altogether, 207 (99%) of 209 employees involved in research participated in the study. Researchers, health managers and physicians comprised 63.8%, 16.4% and 19.8% of the sample, respectively. Proportions were compared using chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests. Results Although 38% of the total sample had the highest research degrees, less than 1% of the sample has international publications. More than three thirds of researchers reported unsatisfactory degree of transparency of financing health research comparing 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). Career opportunities for researchers were also perceived differently with the highest proportion of those who unsatisfactory among researchers themselves (p = 0.025). A greater proportion of physicians (39.0%) compared to the other groups considered the existing conditions for dissemination and implementation of research results as unsatisfactory (p = 0.008). Conclusions The perception of our responders of the current state of health research in Kazakhstan raise concerns about criteria for awarding PhD degrees without international publications, transparency of funding and agreement between the research conducted and real health needs in the country as well existing conditions for disseminating and implementation of the results of health research in practice. Given self-reported nature of the data, the findings should be interpreted with caution. Key message The state of health research in Kazakhstan as reported by researchers, health managers and practicing physicians in Almaty is drastic and needs improvement.