Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is well known in medical practice. Although health promotion (HP) is promoted worldwide, there is still some debate as to whether EBM is needed or useful in the teaching of health promotion.

To assess the perceived usefulness of EBM in the teaching of HP among medical students and faculty members.

A comparative study was conducted between two groups of fourth-year medical students in the academic year 2012 during the five-week Health Promotion Teaching Block at Prince of Songkla University, southern Thailand. A one-week EBM course was conducted with half the students in the first week of the block and the other half of the students in the last week of the block. All activities in the HP block were similar except for the different periods of the one-week of EBM teaching. The effect on knowledge, ability and perceived application of EBM in future practice was assessed by student self-evaluations before versus after taking the EBM course, and by faculty member evaluation of the students’ end-of-block presentations. All evaluation items were rated from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). Data were analyzed using a t-test or Wilcoxon test, as appropriate.

The students’ self-evaluations of knowledge and ability on EBM between the two groups were similar. The perception that teaching EBM is beneficial in health promotion and future practice increased significantly (p<0.001) in both groups. Faculty members rated higher scores for the first group than the second group, although the rating differences were not at the level of significance. Ninety percent of the students believed that EBM was a useful addition to the teaching of HP.

Medical students and faculty members perceived that EBM is useful in the HP context. Future studies to evaluate the effect of using evidence-based teaching for health promotion are needed.