Barriers, Attitudes, and Solutions for Brain Health Research Training in LMICs: A Trainee Cross-Sectional Study in Uganda

Abstract

Background: Neurological disorders remain a challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, with limited expertise and credible research data to guide interventions and disease prevention. Training the next generation of clinical researchers requires a focused and concerted effort to stem the growing neurological disease burden. The US National Institute of Health (NIH) research training funded through the Fogarty International Center (FIC) Global Brain Disorders Research program gave trainees an opportunity to participate in mentored neurology research and training for 1–2.5 years. We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among mentees of 2 FIC research programs to assess the training experience and inform program refinement. Methods: The data were collected via an online questionnaire created using Google Forms. All participants who had participated in the prior brain health research training programs received a nonline survey form. The form included a brief instruction with review guidance on the methodology to be used in training, and its objectives were provided. We used a descriptive analytical approach where we assessed the perceived interest in medical research, barriers to mentorship, satisfaction with the current mentorship and barriers to the current training program. Results: About half of the trainees are male, and the majority, 62/72, reported that they had participated in research studies before enrolling for their training and few (11.1%) had a research experience of more than 3 years. Overall, 97.2% (70/72) reported that they were interested in conducting medical/neurology research as part of their career as a clinician, with 80.5% indicating that they were very interested. There were no significant differences across the several areas of interest regarding the level of satisfaction based on age groups and gender. Conclusion: Barriers still exist for brain health research training in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and efforts to improve more protected time for research, mentorship growth and tailored research training courses are still needed to increase support for young research scientists in SSA.