bims-librar 2020-06-14 papers

bims-librar

Biomed News

on Biomedical librarianship

Issue of 2020–06–14
thirteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

Strategies to resolve recall failures for proper names: New data.
Tackling Research Inefficiency in Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Illustrative Review.
How do Cochrane authors conduct web searching to identify studies? Findings from a cross-sectional sample of Cochrane Reviews.
Ensuring the rigor in systematic reviews: Part 1, the overview.
A Second Pandemic? Perspective on Information Overload in the COVID-19 Era.
The Covid-19 'infodemic': a new front for information professionals.
Information Overload and Infodemic in the COVID-19 Pandemic.
AutoDiscern: rating the quality of online health information with hierarchical encoder attention-based neural networks.
Readability of online patient education material for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a cross-sectional health literacy study.
Quality assessment of patient information on orthognathic surgery on the internet.
Design cues for tobacco communication: Heuristic interpretations and usability of online health information about harmful chemicals.
Lifestyle Segmentation to Explain the Online Health Information-Seeking Behavior of Older Adults: Representative Telephone Survey.
Communication about suicide in YouTube videos: Content analysis of German-language videos retrieved with method-and help-related search terms.

Mem Cognit. 2020 Jun 08.

Strategies to resolve recall failures for proper names: New data.

Serge Brédart, Marie Geurten.

  Personal names are particularly susceptible to retrieval failures. Studies describing people's spontaneous strategies for resolving such failures have indicated that people frequently search for semantic or contextual information about the target person. However, previous experimental studies have shown that, while providing phonological information may help resolve a name-recall failure, by contrast, providing semantic information is usually not helpful. In the first study, in order to reduce a bias present in previous studies of spontaneous strategies, explicit instructions were given to participants, specifying that the focus of the study was on a voluntary search for information. Participants reported strategically searching for semantic/contextual strategies when they tried to resolve a name-retrieval failure more often than they reported searching for phonological/orthographic information. In addition, phonological/orthographic strategies were perceived as more difficult than semantic/contextual strategies. In a second experiment, we investigated whether retrieving phonological information by oneself is objectively difficult in a face-naming task: in the event of retrieval failure, participants were instructed to search for phonological information in some trials and for semantic information in other trials. Participants recalled semantic information in 94% of the trials when instructed to search for semantic information. By contrast, when instructed to search for phonological information, participants remained unable to recall any correct piece of phonological information in about 55% of the trials. This result shows that the retrieval of phonological information is objectively difficult. This difficulty could explain why people do not privilege searching for phonology to resolve name-retrieval failures.

Keywords:  Metacognition; Proper names; Tip-of-the-tongue

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-020-01057-x
JMIR Res Protoc. 2020 Jun 11. 9(6): e15922

Tackling Research Inefficiency in Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Illustrative Review.

Danyal Zaman Khan, Muhammad Shuaib Khan, Mark Rn Kotter, Benjamin Marshall Davies.

   BACKGROUND: Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is widely accepted as the most common cause of adult myelopathy worldwide. Despite this, there is no specific term or diagnostic criteria in the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision and no Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) or an equivalent in common literature databases. This makes searching the literature and thus conducting systematic reviews or meta-analyses imprecise and inefficient. Efficient research synthesis is integral to delivering evidence-based medicine and improving research efficiency.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to illustrate the difficulties encountered when attempting to carry out a comprehensive and accurate evidence search in the field of DCM by identifying the key sources of imprecision and quantifying their impact.
METHODS: To identify the key sources of imprecision and quantify their impact, an illustrative search strategy was developed using a validated DCM hedge combined with contemporary strategies used by authors in previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses. This strategy was applied to Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE) and Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE) databases looking for relevant DCM systematic reviews and meta-analyses published within the last 5 years.
RESULTS: The MEDLINE via PubMed search strategy returned 24,166 results, refined to 534 papers after the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of these, 32.96% (176/534) results were about DCM, and 18.16% (97/534) of these were DCM systematic reviews or meta-analyses. Non-DCM results were organized into imprecision categories (spinal: 268/534, 50.2%; nonspinal: 84/534, 15.5%; and nonhuman: 8/534, 1.5%). The largest categories were spinal cord injury (75/534, 13.67%), spinal neoplasms (44/534, 8.24%), infectious diseases of the spine and central nervous system (18/534, 3.37%), and other spinal levels (ie, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral; 18/534, 3.37%). Counterintuitively, the use of human and adult PubMed filters was found to exclude a large number of relevant articles. Searching a second database (EMBASE) added an extra 12 DCM systematic reviews or meta-analyses.
CONCLUSIONS: DCM search strategies face significant imprecision, principally because of overlapping and heterogenous search terms, and inaccurate article indexing. Notably, commonly employed MEDLINE filters, human and adult, reduced search sensitivity, whereas the related articles function and the use of a second database (EMBASE) improved it. Development of a MeSH labeling and a standardized DCM definition would allow comprehensive and specific indexing of DCM literature. This is required to support a more efficient research synthesis.

Keywords:  cervical; disc herniation; imprecision; myelopathy; ossification posterior longitudinal ligament; research inefficiency; spondylosis; spondylotic; stenosis; systematic review

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/15922
Health Info Libr J. 2020 Jun 08.

How do Cochrane authors conduct web searching to identify studies? Findings from a cross-sectional sample of Cochrane Reviews.

Simon Briscoe, Michael Nunns, Liz Shaw.

   BACKGROUND: Searching the World Wide Web using search engines and websites can be conducted to identify studies for systematic reviews. When searching to support systematic reviews, the searcher faces challenges in using the basic search interfaces of most search engines and websites.
OBJECTIVES: To describe and evaluate current practice of web searching in a cross-sectional sample of Cochrane Reviews. The study also describes the stated aims of web searching, i.e. the identification of published or unpublished studies or both.
METHODS: A six-month cross-sectional sample of Cochrane Reviews was identified via the Cochrane Library. Reviews were inspected for detail about web searching. Findings were described and evaluated using a framework of key principles for web searching.
RESULTS: 423 Cochrane Reviews published August 2016-January 2017 were identified of which 61 (14%) reported web searching. Web searches were typically simplified versions of the bibliographic database search. Advanced and iterative approaches were not widely used. Google Search and Google Scholar were the most popular search engines. Most reports stated identification of grey literature as their aim.
CONCLUSION: Basic web search interfaces necessitate simple searches. However, there is scope to use more diverse search features and techniques and a greater variety of search engines.

Keywords:  Web 2.0; current awareness services; health care; information management; internet; literature searching; review, literature; review, systematized

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12313
Heart Lung. 2020 Jun 09. pii: S0147-9563(20)30103-5. [Epub ahead of print]

Ensuring the rigor in systematic reviews: Part 1, the overview.

Alexandria Brackett, Janene Batten.



Keywords:  Guideline; Meta-analysis; Protocol; Systematic review

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrtlng.2020.03.015
Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2020 Jun 09. 194599820935850

A Second Pandemic? Perspective on Information Overload in the COVID-19 Era.

Taher S Valika, Sarah E Maurrasse, Lara Reichert.

  The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected the globe in previously unimaginable ways, with far-reaching economic and social implications. It has also led to an outpouring of daily, ever-changing information. To assess the amount of data that were emerging, a PubMed search related to COVID-19 was performed. Nearly 8000 articles have been published since the virus was defined 4 months ago. This number has grown exponentially every month, potentially hindering our ability to discern what is scientifically important. Unlike previous global pandemics, we exist in a world of instantaneous access. Information, accurate or otherwise, is flowing from one side of the world to the other via word of mouth, social media, news, and medical journals. Changes in practice guidelines should be based on high-quality, well-powered research. Our job as health care providers is to mitigate misinformation and provide reassurance to prevent a second pandemic of misinformation.

Keywords:  COVID-19; health data; information

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0194599820935850
Health Info Libr J. 2020 Jun 13.

The Covid-19 'infodemic': a new front for information professionals.

Salman Bin Naeem, Rubina Bhatti.

  The virus, commonly known as COVID-19 which emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has spread in 213 countries, areas or territories around the globe, with nearly 144 683 deaths worldwide on 18 April 2020. In the wake of this pandemic, we have witnessed a massive infodemic with the public being bombarded with vast quantities of information, much of which is not scientifically correct. Fighting fake news is now the new front in the COVID-19 battle. This regular feature comments on the role of health sciences librarians and information professionals in combating the COVID-19 infodemic. To support their work, it draws attention to the myth busters, fact-checkers and credible sources relating to COVID-19. It also documents the guides that libraries have put together to help the general public, students and faculty recognise fake news.

Keywords:  global health; information literacy; information professionals

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12311
J Pak Med Assoc. 2020 May;70(Suppl 3)(5): S162-S165

Information Overload and Infodemic in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Farooq Azam Rathore, Fareeha Farooq.

  The world has experienced pandemics worse than the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which resulted in great loss of life and economy. However, the global effect of this pandemic has been devastating. Billions of people are in lockdown and isolation on six continents around the world. Most have easy access to information due to internet connectivity and electronic media, which has helped share information about the pandemic. However, information overload during the current COVID-19 pandemic has posed a set of challenges not encountered before. There is an "infodemic" in which false news, conspiracy theories, magical cures and racist news are being shared at an alarming rate, with the potential to increase anxiety and stress and even lead to loss of life. This review highlights some of these challenges and suggests general measures to avoid information overload and infodemic in the connected world of 21st century.

Keywords:  Social Media, Pakistan, Coronavirus, Facebook, WHO, Global health, Mental health, Lockdown.

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5455/JPMA.38
BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2020 Jun 09. 20(1): 104

AutoDiscern: rating the quality of online health information with hierarchical encoder attention-based neural networks.

Laura Kinkead, Ahmed Allam, Michael Krauthammer.

   BACKGROUND: Patients increasingly turn to search engines and online content before, or in place of, talking with a health professional. Low quality health information, which is common on the internet, presents risks to the patient in the form of misinformation and a possibly poorer relationship with their physician. To address this, the DISCERN criteria (developed at University of Oxford) are used to evaluate the quality of online health information. However, patients are unlikely to take the time to apply these criteria to the health websites they visit.
METHODS: We built an automated implementation of the DISCERN instrument (Brief version) using machine learning models. We compared the performance of a traditional model (Random Forest) with that of a hierarchical encoder attention-based neural network (HEA) model using two language embeddings, BERT and BioBERT.
RESULTS: The HEA BERT and BioBERT models achieved average F1-macro scores across all criteria of 0.75 and 0.74, respectively, outperforming the Random Forest model (average F1-macro = 0.69). Overall, the neural network based models achieved 81% and 86% average accuracy at 100% and 80% coverage, respectively, compared to 94% manual rating accuracy. The attention mechanism implemented in the HEA architectures not only provided 'model explainability' by identifying reasonable supporting sentences for the documents fulfilling the Brief DISCERN criteria, but also boosted F1 performance by 0.05 compared to the same architecture without an attention mechanism.
CONCLUSIONS: Our research suggests that it is feasible to automate online health information quality assessment, which is an important step towards empowering patients to become informed partners in the healthcare process.

Keywords:  Health communication; Information quality; Machine learning; Natural language processing; Neural networks

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-01131-z
Public Health. 2020 May 30. pii: S0033-3506(20)30203-1. [Epub ahead of print]185 21-25

Readability of online patient education material for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a cross-sectional health literacy study.

T Szmuda, C Özdemir, S Ali, A Singh, M T Syed, P Słoniewski.

   OBJECTIVES: The internet has become one of the most important resources for the general population when searching for healthcare information. However, the information available is not always suitable for all readers because of its difficult readability. We sought to assess the readability of online information regarding the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and establish whether they follow the patient educational information reading level recommendations.
STUDY DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study.
METHODS: We searched five key terms on Google and the first 30 results from each of the searches were considered for analysis. Five validated readability tests were utilized to establish the reading level for each article.
RESULTS: Of the 150 gathered articles, 61 met the inclusion criteria and were evaluated. None (0%) of the articles met the recommended 5th to 6th grade reading level (of an 11-12-year-old). The mean readability scores were Flesch Reading Ease 44.14, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 12.04, Gunning-Fog Index 14.27, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook SMOG Index 10.71, and Coleman-Liau Index 12.69.
CONCLUSIONS: Online educational articles on COVID-19 provide information too difficult to read for the general population. The readability of articles regarding COVID-19 and other diseases needs to improve so that the general population may understand health information better and may respond adequately to protect themselves and limit the spread of infection.

Keywords:  COVID-19; Coronavirus; Google; Internet; Readability

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.05.041
J Craniomaxillofac Surg. 2020 May 28. pii: S1010-5182(20)30115-3. [Epub ahead of print]

Quality assessment of patient information on orthognathic surgery on the internet.

Johannes Engelmann, Carmen Fischer, Emeka Nkenke.

   OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the quality of online information for patients on orthognathic surgery.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A selection of search terms specific for orthognathic surgery was chosen and 150 websites were identified using the Internet search engines Google, Yahoo and Bing. Irrelevant websites were excluded. The remaining websites were assessed with a modified Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) tool. EQIP evaluates the quality of medical patient information by measuring the three key aspects of content, structure, and identification data.
RESULTS: 48 relevant websites were identified. EQIP values ranged between 2 and 28 (median 13.65). While 37 of the 48 websites described details of the surgical procedures, only 13 mentioned possible risks and complications of the surgery. No differences were found between the websites of private practices, dentists and public hospitals, universities, or others (p = 0.66). Websites found by Google had a significantly lower EQIP score compared with Yahoo and Bing (11.12 vs. 16.60 for Yahoo and 16.23 for Bing; p = 0.012). The better the rank of the website, the higher the EQIP score (r = -0.411, p = 0.004).
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study reflected a large variation of quality of information on orthognathic surgery on the Internet. Therefore, surgeons must be aware that they might be confronted with unrealistic expectations of patients, who may underestimate the potential risks and drawbacks of orthognathic surgery.

Keywords:  EQIP; Evaluation; Health information; Oral; Orthognathic surgery; Patient information

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcms.2020.05.004
Int J Med Inform. 2020 May 17. pii: S1386-5056(20)30037-X. [Epub ahead of print]141 104177

Design cues for tobacco communication: Heuristic interpretations and usability of online health information about harmful chemicals.

Allison J Lazard.

   OBJECTIVE: Many people have a poor understanding of the numerous chemicals in tobacco products that cause severe health harms. The US government must display a list of these harmful chemicals for the public. Online disclosures are one promising solution, but evidence is needed for effective design strategies to encourage interpretation and use of information as intended.
METHOD: To examine the impact of website designs for the activation of heuristics and usability perceptions, a national probability sample of US adolescents and adults (n = 1441) was randomized in a 3 (chemical format) × 2 (webpage layout) between-subjects online experiment. Chemicals were displayed as names only, with a visual risk indicator, or with numerical ranges. Layouts displayed health harms at the top of the webpage separate from chemicals or the chemicals grouped by associated health harms. Participants viewed a webpage and reported activated heuristics, usability (perceived ease of use and usefulness), and intentions to use the website.
RESULTS: Displaying risk indicators increased website usability by encouraging users to rely on colors to interpret the risk of the chemicals (all p < .01). Website designs that grouped chemicals with harms allowed users to link the chemicals to harms they cause and increased perceived usability and intentions to use the website (all p < .001).
CONCLUSION: Assessing heuristics gives insights for how US adolescents and adults interpret chemical information and the impact of design strategies on usability. Public disclosures of chemicals in tobacco products could be optimized with color-coded risk indicators and layouts placing chemicals near the harms they cause.

Keywords:  Health communication; Heuristics; Technology acceptance; Tobacco control; Website design; eHealth

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104177
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Jun 12. 22(6): e15099

Lifestyle Segmentation to Explain the Online Health Information-Seeking Behavior of Older Adults: Representative Telephone Survey.

Winja Weber, Anne Reinhardt, Constanze Rossmann.

   BACKGROUND: As a result of demographic changes, the number of people aged 60 years and older has been increasing steadily. Therefore, older adults have become more important as a target group for health communication efforts. Various studies show that online health information sources have gained importance among younger adults, but we know little about the health-related internet use of senior citizens in general and in particular about the variables explaining their online health-related information-seeking behavior. Media use studies indicate that in addition to sociodemographic variables, lifestyle factors might play a role in this context.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine older people's health-related internet use. Our study focused on the explanatory potential of lifestyle types over and above sociodemographic variables to predict older adults' internet use for health information.
METHODS: A telephone survey was conducted with a random sample of German adults aged 60 years and older (n=701) that was quota-allocated by gender, age, educational status, and degree of urbanity of their place of residence.
RESULTS: The results revealed that participants used the internet infrequently (mean 1.82 [SD 1.07]), and medical personnel (mean 2.89 [SD 1.11]), family and friends (mean 2.86 [SD 1.21]), and health brochures (mean 2.85 [SD 1.21]) were their main sources of health information. A hierarchical cluster analysis based on values, interests, and leisure time activities revealed three different lifestyle types for adults aged over 60 years: the Sociable Adventurer, the Average Family Person, and the Uninterested Inactive. After adding these types as second-step predictors in a hierarchical regression model with sociodemographic variables (step 1), the explained variance increased significantly (R2=.02, P=.001), indicating that the Average Family Person and the Sociable Adventurer use the internet more often for health information than the Uninterested Inactive, over and above their sociodemographic attributes.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the internet still plays only a minor role in the health information-seeking behavior of older German adults. Nevertheless, there are subgroups including younger, more active, down-to-earth and family-oriented males that may be reached with online health information. Our findings suggest that lifestyle types should be taken into account when predicting health-related internet use behavior.

Keywords:  cluster analysis; lifestyle; older adults; online health information seeking; segmentation

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/15099
Psychiatry Res. 2020 Jun 01. pii: S0165-1781(19)31913-4. [Epub ahead of print]290 113170

Communication about suicide in YouTube videos: Content analysis of German-language videos retrieved with method-and help-related search terms.

Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, Ronja Schacherl, Benedikt Till.

  Online searches for information on suicide are very common but studies on how the topic is addressed on one of the the most relevant platforms, YouTube, are missing. We performed a content analysis of German-language videos retrieved with the basic term "suicide", a method-related search term ("how to hang yourself"), and a help-related term ("suicide prevention"). We assessed the quality of n=232 randomly selected videos based on media recommendations for suicide reporting. Characteristics of videos retrieved with the method- and help-related search term, were compared to search results for "suicide". Videos retrieved with the help-related term had more potentially protective and fewer harmful characteristics than those retrieved with the other search terms. For example, these videos significantly more often debunked suicide myths and provided contact information to help services. In total, the mean number of harmful and protective characteristics per video were 1.6 and 1.3 for basic searches; 1.7 and 1.0 for method-related searches, and 0.4 and 2.8 for help-related searches, respectively. Videos retrieved in the help-related search were often from help organizations. Only 3% and 8% of videos retrieved with "suicide" and "how to hang yourself", respectively, were age-restricted. Collaborations between suicide prevention and Youtube are warranted to improve the visibility of protective contents and ensure a better implementation of Youtube's own policies regarding self-harm.

Keywords:  Content analysis; Internet; Suicide; YouTube

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113170