Abstract: Objective To survey the status of the cognition and attitude of grading of evidence  in evidence-based medicine in ophthalmologists. Design Questionnaire survey. Participants Two hundred and thirty-three ophthalmologists presented in the 18th Congress of Chinese Ophthalmological Society. Methods 233 ophthalmologists were surveyed by a self-made questionnaire, including their basic information and their cognition and attitude of grading of evidence in evidence-based medicine. Besides, comparison was made between different groups by educational degree, medical title, the level of their hospital, the type of their hospital and city respectively. Main Outcome Measure The cognition and attitude of grading of evidence. As for the cognition, both self-evaluation of the cognition of grading of evidence and the accuracy of concerned specific questions were included. Results A total of 233 questionnaires were distributed, and 214 valid questionnaires were returned (the rate of effective questionnaires is 91.8%).  48.3% of the respondents believe that we should base clinical practice on evidence based medicine while the traditional clinical practice is complementary. But 25.1% of them stand on the opposite side. The percentage of the respondents choosing “well known” about grading of evidence is only 1.3 while those who choose “not-known” or “poorly-known” account for 72.4%. The ophthalmologists with a higher degree or higher level of the hospital they work in evaluate themselves higher level of the acknowledge of grading of evidence. The accuracy of five questions about its details is 0.9, 41.3, 41.5, 6.9, 12.7 percent respectively. The comparison among groups by educational degree, medical title, the level of their hospital, the type of their hospital and city respectively is also consistent with the result above. Besides, 65.4% of respondents think the grading of evidence “vital” or “certain important” while nobody see it as no importance to clinical practice. Conclusion The current cognitions of ophthalmologists on grading of evidence is not very well but most of them have recognized the importance of it to clinical practice. Training about grading of evidence should be started from the stage of undergraduate on. Besides, it’s also emergent to take measures to promote the practicing of grading of evidence in clinic adequately.

Key words: ophthalmologists, evidence-based medicine, grading of evidence, clinical decision making, cognition