Introduction: There is little information regarding research during internship and residency. Our objective is to describe interns' and residents' scientific research output, to estimate the rate of dissemination of their work (presentation in a scientific meeting and/or publication), and to identify potential barriers to dissemination.
Methods: Cross-sectional study that included all articles developed at the Resident Research Training Program of Hospital General de Niños Pedro de Elizalde (HGNPE) between 1997 and 2012.
Results: Authors of451/531 articles were contacted. The annual output underwent a steady increase (1997= 12 vs. 2012= 40; R2= 0.88; p < 0.001).When exclusively considering research projects (no reviews) (n= 195), 30.8% were disseminated (26.7% were presented in meetings and 11.3% were published). Retrospective studies were more frequently disseminated than prospective ones (37.5% vs. 21.7%; OR: 2.17; p < 0.02), and this also occurs with analytical projects when compared to descriptive ones (41.2% vs. 16%; OR: 3,67; p < 0.001). Lack of time was the most common reason for not disseminating research findings (45.9%).
Conclusion: Only 30.8% of research projects were disseminated. Studies with retrospective data collection and analytical design had more chances of being disseminated.