bims-librar Biomed News
on Biomedical librarianship
Issue of 2020–09–06
thirteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society
  1. Library Jargon Creates Barriers for Potential Users of Health Library and Information Services.
  2. Ensuring the rigor in systematic reviews: Part 2, preparation is key: The question and the protocol.
  3. Searching for online health information instead of seeing a physician: a cross-sectional study among high school students in Belgrade, Serbia.
  4. Social media as a tool for scientific updating at the time of COVID pandemic: Results from a national survey in Italy.
  5. Information on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Daily Newspapers' Front Pages: Case Study of Spain and Italy.
  6. Preference and Trust: An Investigation of Information Source of COVID-19 Among People Over 50 Years.
  7. Pelvic vein embolization: an assessment of the readability and quality of online information for patients.
  8. Health literacy among neurosurgery and other surgical subspecialties: Readability of online patient materials found with Google.
  9. Quality of Online Information Regarding Cervical Cancer.
  10. Readability of Online Patient Educational Materials for Coronary Artery Calcium Scans and Implications for Health Disparities.
  11. The usefulness and validity of English-language videos on YouTube as an educational resource for spondyloarthritis.
  12. Using Xigua Video as a Source of Information on Breast Cancer: Content Analysis.
  13. Internet search trends and online awareness of skin cancer and melanoma in the Republic of Ireland and the UK.
  1. Health Info Libr J. 2020 Aug 31.
    Library Jargon Creates Barriers for Potential Users of Health Library and Information Services.
    Helen Kiely.
      This paper is based on Helen Kiely's Masters dissertation on MA in Library and Information Service Management, successfully completed at the University of Sheffield in 2018. The aim of the study was to explore the extent to which users of a health care library service understood common terminology used by clinical librarians/information professionals. A survey was developed based on the terminology used for common services and was distributed to staff and students at an acute NHS Foundation Trust. One hundred and eight people participated over a four week period and were asked to provide definitions to the terms. Analysis of the responses for accuracy and common themes indicates that jargon can be a barrier to user access and recommendations are made with respect to the need for outreach to users and the language used in this practice for creating better accessibility. F.J.
    Keywords:  library and information professionals; library outreach; library services; surveys
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12328
  2. Heart Lung. 2020 Aug 26. pii: S0147-9563(20)30299-5. [Epub ahead of print]
    Ensuring the rigor in systematic reviews: Part 2, preparation is key: The question and the protocol.
    Alexandria Brackett, Janene Batten.
      
    Keywords:  Librarian; Meta-analysis; Protocol; Systematic review
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrtlng.2020.07.001
  3. Int J Public Health. 2020 Sep 02.
    Searching for online health information instead of seeing a physician: a cross-sectional study among high school students in Belgrade, Serbia.
    Tatjana Gazibara, Jelena Cakic, Milica Cakic, Anita Grgurevic, Tatjana Pekmezovic.
       OBJECTIVES: Fear of being judged and stigmatized has been reported as barriers for adolescents to timely use healthcare services. The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence and factors associated with online health information seeking instead of seeing a physician among high school students.
    METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was carried out in four out of 21 public high schools in Belgrade, from December 2016 to January 2017 (n = 702, 41.9% males, 15-19 years old). The association of socio-demographic characteristics, digital literacy, interest in health topics and the use of online platforms with health information seeking was analysed using multinomial regression models.
    RESULTS: More than half of high school students (56.6%) search for online health information instead of seeking a physician. Being male, having lower-grade point average, attending humanities-languages program, older age at first Internet use, better e-health literacy, use of smartphones, interest in sexually transmitted diseases and mental health, use of websites run by physicians and Youtube was associated with online health information seeking instead of in-person visit to a physician.
    CONCLUSIONS: Setting up safe and supportive online platform could help adolescents improve health education. Physicians who see adolescent patients should encourage discussions about sensitive health topics.
    Keywords:  Adolescents; Health information; Information seeking behaviour; Internet; e-Health
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01471-7
  4. PLoS One. 2020 ;15(9): e0238414
    Social media as a tool for scientific updating at the time of COVID pandemic: Results from a national survey in Italy.
    COVID II Columbus Group
      In the face of the rapid evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals on the frontline are in urgent need of frequent updates in the accomplishment of their practice. Hence, clinicians started to search for prompt, valid information on sources that are parallel to academic journals. Aim of this work is to investigate the extent of this phenomenon. We administered an anonymous online cross-sectional survey to 645 Italian clinicians. Target of the survey were all medical figures potentially involved in the management of COVID-19 cases. 369 questionnaires were returned. 19.5% (n = 72) of respondents were younger than 30 years-old; 49,3% (n = 182) worked in Infectious Diseases, Internal Medicine or Respiratory Medicine departments, 11.5% (n = 42) in Intensive Care Unit and 7.4% (n = 27) were general practitioner. 70% (n = 261) of respondents reported that their use of social media to seek medical information increased during the pandemic. 39.3% (n = 145) consistently consulted Facebook groups and 53.1% (n = 196) Whatsapp chats. 47% (n = 174) of respondents reported that information shared on social media had a consistent impact on their daily practice. In the present study, we found no difference in social media usage between age groups or medical specialties. Given the urgent need for scientific update during the present pandemic, these findings may help understanding how clinicians access new evidences and implement them in their daily practice.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238414
  5. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Aug 31. pii: E6330. [Epub ahead of print]17(17):
    Information on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Daily Newspapers' Front Pages: Case Study of Spain and Italy.
    Santiago Tejedor, Laura Cervi, Fernanda Tusa, Marta Portales, Margarita Zabotina.
      Spain and Italy are amongst the European countries where the COVID-19 pandemic has produced its major impact and where lockdown measures have been the harshest. This research aims at understanding how the corona crisis has been represented in Spanish and Italian media, focusing on reference newspapers. The study analyzes 72 front pages of El País and El Mundo in Spain and Italy's Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, collecting 710 news items and 3456 data evidences employing a mixed method (both qualitative and quantitative) based on content analysis and hemerographic analysis. Results show a predominance of informative journalistic genres (especially brief and news), while the visual framing emerging from the photographic choice, tend to foster humanization through an emotional representation of the pandemic. Politicians are the most represented actors, showing a high degree of politicization of the crisis.
    Keywords:  COVID-19; journalism; media; newspapers
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176330
  6. Asia Pac J Public Health. 2020 Aug 30. 1010539520956428
    Preference and Trust: An Investigation of Information Source of COVID-19 Among People Over 50 Years.
    Nan Yu, Zhaojun Jiang.
      A cross-sectional survey that reached 21 out of 34 provinces of China was conducted during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China. The study discovered different patterns of source preference and trust among people over 50 years. The data suggested the critical role of television and family as preferred and trustworthy information sources of the pandemic. The potential roles of social media and news apps for distributing COVID-19 information were also discovered. Additionally, age, education, marriage status, health status, and vision health can influence choices of information sources during a pandemic.
    Keywords:  COVID-19; information source; pandemic; preference; trust
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539520956428
  7. CVIR Endovasc. 2020 Oct 18. 3(1): 52
    Pelvic vein embolization: an assessment of the readability and quality of online information for patients.
    R J Lee, D C O'Neill, M Brassil, J Alderson, M J Lee.
       INTRODUCTION: Pelvic congestion syndrome is a controversial topic. Pelvic vein embolization is a minimally invasive treatment for pelvic congestion syndrome. We aimed to assess the quality of information available on the Internet and determine how accessible information provided by the main IR societies was to patients.
    MATERIALS AND METHODS: The most commonly used term relating to pelvic vein embolization was searched across the five most-used English language search engines, with the first 25 web pages returned by each engine included for analysis. Duplicate web pages, nontext content and web pages behind paywalls were excluded. Web pages were analyzed for quality and readability using validated tools: DISCERN score, JAMA Benchmark Criteria, HONcode Certification, Flesch Reading Ease Score, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, and Gunning-Fog Index.
    RESULTS: The most common applicable term was "Pelvic Vein Embolization". Mean DISCERN quality of information provided by websites is "fair". Flesh-Kincaid readability tests and Gunning-Fog Index demonstrated an average "college level" of reading ease. HON code certification was demonstrated in less than one third of web pages. Professional societies and scientific journals demonstrated the highest average JAMA and DISCERN scores, while for-profit organizations and healthcare providers demonstrated the lowest. Only information from 1 of 3 interventional societies was included in the first 25 search engine pages.
    CONCLUSION: The quality of information available online to patients is "fair" and outside of scientific journals the majority of web pages do not meet the JAMA benchmark criteria. These findings call for the production of high-quality and comprehensible content regarding interventional radiology, where physicians can reliably direct their patients for information.
    Keywords:  Embolization; Information; Internet; Online; Patient; Pelvic congestion syndrome; Pelvic vein
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s42155-020-00143-0
  8. Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2020 Aug 22. pii: S0303-8467(20)30484-4. [Epub ahead of print]197 106141
    Health literacy among neurosurgery and other surgical subspecialties: Readability of online patient materials found with Google.
    Rosemary Behmer Hansen, Justin Gold, Meeki Lad, Raghav Gupta, Somnath Ganapa, Antonios Mammis.
       OBJECTIVE: To both determine whether the most high-yield online patient materials for surgical specialties meet the 6th grade readability level recommended by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Medical Association (AMA), and to discover differences in readability across specialties. We hypothesize average readability scores will exceed an 11th grade level.
    METHODS: The top five most common procedures for each of seven surgical specialties (neurological, orthopedic, plastic, general, thoracic, pediatric, and vascular) were searched using an incognito Google query to minimize location bias. The text from the top five patient-relevant links per procedure, excluding Wikipedia, journal articles, and videos, was extracted and inserted into Readability Studio Software for analysis.
    RESULTS: The combined average grade level of materials (± standard deviation) was: 10.47 ± 2.51 Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), 11-12 New Dale-Chall (NDC), 10.09 ± 1.97 Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), 12 Fry Graph (FG). Thoracic, neurologic, vascular, plastic, and orthopedic were least readable (grade level 10+ by all metrics).
    CONCLUSIONS: High readability of procedure materials for patients is not unique to neurosurgery: all specialties exceeded the recommended 6th grade level by three or more grades. Online patient education materials related to surgical subspecialties must be written more comprehensibly.
    Keywords:  Health literacy; Internet; Patient education; Readability; Surgery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clineuro.2020.106141
  9. Cureus. 2020 Aug 01. 12(8): e9511
    Quality of Online Information Regarding Cervical Cancer.
    Jessica Q Dawson, Janine M Davies, Paris-Ann Ingledew.
      Introduction The internet is an important source of health information, and yet the quality of the resources that patients' access can vary widely. Previous research has evaluated the quality of information for several types of cancer; however, this has not yet been done for cervical cancer beyond treatment information. The goal of this project was to systematically evaluate the quality of resources for cervical cancer information available against a range of metrics, including content breadth and accuracy, readability, and accountability.  Methods An internet search was performed using the term "cervical cancer" using Google and two meta-search engines, Dogpile and Yippy. The top-100 websites returned across all three engines were evaluated using a validated structured rating tool.  Results Only 32% of websites disclosed their author and only 38% used citations, while 64% of websites had been updated in the last two years. Readability was at university-level or higher for 19% of websites, and high-school level for 78%. Coverage was highest for etiology and risk factors (93% of websites) and prevention strategies such as pap smears and vaccines (92%); coverage was lowest for prognosis (49%), staging (52%), side effects (47%), and follow-up (25%). When a topic was covered the information was predominantly accurate, and few websites had inaccurate information. At least one social-media platform was linked to by 79% of websites.  Conclusions This project highlights the strengths and limitations in the quality of the top-100 informational cervical cancer websites. These findings can inform the dialogue between health care providers and patients around selecting and evaluating information resources. These findings can also inform specific improvements to make online resources for cervical cancer more accessible, comprehensive, and relevant to patients.
    Keywords:  cervical cancer; information quality; internet; online health information; patient education
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.9511
  10. J Am Heart Assoc. 2020 Aug 31. e017372
    Readability of Online Patient Educational Materials for Coronary Artery Calcium Scans and Implications for Health Disparities.
    Fatima Rodriguez, Summer Ngo, Grayson Baird, Sujana Balla, Randy Miles, Megha Garg.
      Background Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scans can help reclassify risk and guide patient-clinician shared treatment decisions for cardiovascular disease prevention. Patients increasingly access online patient educational materials (OPEMs) to guide medical decision-making. The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends that OPEMs should be written below a 6th-grade reading level. This study estimated the readability of commonly accessed OPEMs on CAC scans. Methods and Results The terms "coronary artery calcium scan," "heart scan," and "CAC score" were queried using an online search engine to identify the top 50 commonly accessed websites based on order of search results on December 17, 2019. Grade-level readability was calculated using generalized estimating equations, with observations nested within readability metrics from each website. Results were compared with AMA-recommended readability parameters. Overall grade-level readability among all search terms was 10.9 (95% CI, 9.3-12.5). Average grade-level readability of OPEMs for the search terms "coronary artery calcium scan," "heart scan," and "CAC score," was 10.7 (95% CI, 9.0-12.5), 10.5 (95% CI, 8.9-12.1), and 11.9 (95% CI, 10.3-13.5), respectively. Professional society and news/media/blog websites had the highest average reading grade level of 12.6, while health system websites had the lowest average reading grade level of 10.0. Less than half of the unique websites (45.3%) included explanatory images or videos. Conclusions Current OPEMs on CAC scans are written at a higher reading level than recommended for the general public. This may lead to patient misunderstanding, which could exacerbate disparities in cardiovascular health among groups with lower health literacy.
    Keywords:  coronary artery calcium; health literacy; online patient educational material
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.017372
  11. Clin Rheumatol. 2020 Sep 02.
    The usefulness and validity of English-language videos on YouTube as an educational resource for spondyloarthritis.
    Sakktivel Elangovan, Yu Heng Kwan, Warren Fong.
       BACKGROUND: YouTube is a popular online platform where patients often visit for information. However, the validity of the content on spondyloarthritis (SpA) on YouTube is not known.
    OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the content, reliability, and quality of the most viewed English-language YouTube videos on SpA.
    METHODS: Keywords "spondyloarthritis," "spondyloarthropathy," and "ankylosing spondylitis" were searched on YouTube on October 7, 2019. The top 270 videos were screened. Videos were excluded if they were irrelevant, in non-English language, or if they had no audio. Total number of views, duration on YouTube (days), video length, upload date, and number of likes, dislikes, subscribers, and comments were recorded for videos. A modified 5-point DISCERN tool and the 5-point Global Quality Scale (GQS) score were used to assess the reliability and quality of the videos.
    RESULTS: Two hundred videos were included in the final analysis (62% from healthcare professionals, 37% from patients, and 2% from news channels). Useful information, useful patient opinion, misleading patient opinion, and misleading information comprised o60%, 26%, 11%, and 3% of videos respectively. Majority of misleading videos were uploaded by patients (82%). Misleading videos commonly included wrong clinical features and unproven alternative treatments of SpA. Videos by healthcare professionals had more useful information, higher reliability, and GQS scores.
    CONCLUSIONS: Majority of YouTube videos have useful information on SpA and are important educational sources to patients. However, rheumatologists should be aware that misleading patient opinions on alternative therapies can contain inaccurate information and should hence actively correct these misinformation during their clinic consults Key Points • The majority of videos on Spondyloarthritis found on YouTube are deemed useful and are uploaded by healthcare professionals. • The majority of misleading videos were uploaded by patients and the main theme of misinformation was on clinical features and treatment of spondyloarthritis.
    Keywords:  Ankylosing spondylitis; Patient education; Quality; Social media; Spondyloarthritis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-020-05377-w
  12. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Sep 03.
    Using Xigua Video as a Source of Information on Breast Cancer: Content Analysis.
    Peng Pan, Changhua Yu, Honglei Luo, Tao Li, Xilei Zhou, Tingting Dai, Hanhan Tian, Yaozu Xiong.
       BACKGROUND: Seeking health information on the Internet is a very popular trend. Xigua Video, which is a short video platform in China, ranks among the most accessed websites in the country and hosts an increasing number of videos with medical information. However, the nature of the videos is frequently unscientific, misleading, or even harmful.
    OBJECTIVE: Little is known about Xigua Video as a source of information on breast cancer. Thus, the study aimed to investigate the contents, quality, and reliability of breast cancer-related videos.
    METHODS: On February 4, 2020, a search of Xigua Video was made using the keyword "breast cancer." Two doctors categorized the videos as useful or misleading information. Furthermore, the reliability and quality of the videos were assessed using the five-point DISCERN tool and five-point Global Quality Score (GQS) tool.
    RESULTS: Out of the 170 videos selected for the study, 64 (37.6%) were classified as useful, whereas 106 (62.4%) provided misleading information. A total of 71 videos (41.8%) were generated by individuals versus 33 videos (19.4%) contributed by professionals. The topics mainly covered etiology, anatomy, symptoms, preventions, treatments, and prognosis. Treatments was the top topic (70%). The reliability score and GQS score of the videos in the useful information group were high (P < 0.001). No differences were observed in terms of video length, duration in months, and comments between the two groups. The number of total views was higher for the misleading information group (819,478.5 vs. 647,940) but did not reach a level of statistical significance (P = 0.112). The uploading sources of the videos were mainly professionals, health information websites, medical advertisements, and individuals. Statistical differences were found between uploading source groups in terms of reliability score and GQS score (P <.001). In terms of total views, video length, duration, and comments, no statistical differences were indicated among the said groups. However, a statistical difference was noted between the useful and misleading information groups with respect to uploading sources (P <.001).
    CONCLUSIONS: Although many videos on Xigua Video are related to breast cancer, a large number contain misleading information. Although such videos are currently important sources of information for the general population, the need arises for videos with full and accurate information collated by professionals for upload to Xigua Video and other social media.
    CLINICALTRIAL:
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/19668
  13. Ir J Med Sci. 2020 Sep 05.
    Internet search trends and online awareness of skin cancer and melanoma in the Republic of Ireland and the UK.
    Gregg Murray, Rebecca Hellen, Marina O'Kane.
      
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-020-02359-4
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