Survey of willingness to participate in clinical trials and influencing factors among cancer and non-cancer patients

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 at Sarawak General Hospital. We conducted a cross-sectional survey from March to September 2022 on 763 cancer and non-cancer patients. We collected patients' responses and calculated scores for willingness to participate (40.5/100), 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). The higher scores indicated greater willingness, better knowledge, stronger perceptions of benefits and risk, increased confidence, and stronger religious barriers. Cancer patient demonstrated significantly greater willingness for trials involving new drugs (31.9/100 vs. 27.4/100, p = 0.021) but slightly higher religious barriers compared to non-cancer cohort (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 associated with reduced willingness to participate (p < 0.05). This study underscores the challenges in engaging Malaysian patients in clinical trials, particularly in Sarawak, emphasising the need for targeted strategies to raise awareness, effective communication, and enhancing public confidence in clinical trials.