Malaysian Patient Perspectives on Clinical Trial Participation: Willingness, Knowledge, Perceptions, Confidence, and Religious Barriers

Abstract Despite the expanding landscape of clinical trials, there is a lack of study concerning Malaysian patients’ participation and perspectives. This study addresses these gaps by assessing patients’ willingness, knowledge, perceptions, confidence, and religious barriers related to clinical trial participations in a clinical trial hospital in Malaysia. We conducted a cross-sectional survey at Sarawak General Hospital from March to September 2022, encompassing 763 cancer and non-cancer patients. We collected patients’ responses and calculated scores for domains such as willingness to participate (40.5/100), clinical trial knowledge (29.9/100), perceived benefits (66.5/100) and risks (72.4/100) of participations, confidence in clinical trial conducts (66.3/100), and religious barriers (49.8/100). Cancer patient demonstrated significantly greater willingness for trials involving new drugs (scores: 31.9/100 vs 27.4/100, p = 0.021) but slightly higher religious barriers compared to non-cancer cohort (scores: 51.4/100 vs 48.3/100, p = 0.006). Multivariable logistic regression identified female gender, unemployment, poor knowledge, low perceived benefits, high perceived risks, and low confidence as significant factors negatively associated with willingness to participate in clinical trials (p < 0.05). This study underscores the challenges in engaging Malaysian patients in clinical trials, emphasising the need for targeted strategies to raise awareness, effective communication on benefits and risks, and enhancing public confidence to promote clinical trial participation.