bims-librar Biomed News
on Biomedical librarianship
Issue of 2021‒08‒29
eighteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society


  1. Health Info Libr J. 2021 Aug 23.
      OBJECTIVE: To understand the impact of the UK Clinical Librarian (CL) workforce and benchmark the results against a study undertaken in the North West region of the English National Health Service (NHS).METHODS: An online survey was distributed by CLs to their service users regarding literature searches that had been carried out on their behalf in the 6 months from April to October 2017. Interviews were later carried out in person with selected respondents to the questionnaires.
    RESULTS: CLs across the UK contribute to a wide range of outcomes, with 41% of search requests contributing to the choice of intervention, and 41% also to the advice offered by the clinician requester to a patient or their carer. These results are in line with the previous work undertaken in the North West.
    DISCUSSION: CLs provide diverse services to clinical teams. They support the continuing professional development and personal research needs of team members, service development needs of organisations, and the information provided contributes to improved quality and safety of patient care.
    CONCLUSION: The survey confirms the findings of the earlier NW study. It demonstrates the impact of services based around literature searching on patient care.
    Keywords:  evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP); librarians; clinical; librarians; embedded; libraries; health care; outreach librarian; questionnaires; surveys
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12389
  2. J Evid Based Med. 2021 Aug 24.
      AIM: Cochrane reviews are internationally recognized for their high quality, but to reduce the risk of transmitting misleading information, they must be kept up to date. The aim of this study was to quantify the number of reviews in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) that have not been updated for more than five years and to characterize them.METHOD: This study was reported closely adapted to the STROBE guidelines. Information about all reviews in the CDSR was extracted in August 2020. Based on a previous study, we defined inactive reviews as reviews with no update in "What's New" or no publication of a new version of the review within the last 5.5 years. The inactive reviews were quantified and characterized and results were visualized through tables and charts.
    RESULTS: The study included 7931 reviews from the CDSR. The median age of all reviews in the CDSR was 5.3 years. Fifty-five percent were published for the first time between 1996 and February 2015 and 88% of these had been inactive for 5.5 years or more. Among these, 89% were first publication of the review that had never been updated afterward.
    CONCLUSION: More than half of the Cochrane reviews in CDSR were first published before 2015 and only 12% of these were still active. In order to retain their validity, it would be preferable if Cochrane reviews were kept up to date by the authors either by an update in "What's New" or by publishing a new version of the review.
    Keywords:  Cochrane; evidence-based medicine; methodology; out of date; reporting; systematic reviews; update
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/jebm.12447
  3. MethodsX. 2021 ;8 101264
      Eponyms are common in medicine; however, their usage has varied between specialties and over time. A search of specific eponyms will reveal the frequency of usage within a medical specialty. While usage of eponyms can be studied by searching PubMed, manual searching can be time-consuming. As an alternative, we modified an existing Biopython method for searching PubMed. In this method, a list of disease eponyms is first manually collected in an Excel file. A Python script then creates permutations of the eponyms that might exist in the cited literature. These permutations include possessives (e.g., 's) as well as various forms of combining multiple surnames. PubMed is then automatically searched for this permutated library of eponyms, and duplicate citations are removed. The final output file may then be sorted and enumerated by all the data fields which exist in PubMed. This method will enable rapid searching and characterization of eponyms for any specialty of medicine. This method is agnostic to the type of terms searched and can be generally applied to the medical literature including non-eponymous terms such as gene names and chemical compounds.•Custom Python scripts using Biopython's Bio.Entrez module automate the search for medical eponyms.•This method can be more broadly used to search for any set of terms existing in PubMed.
    Keywords:  Bibliometrics; Biopython; Citation; Eponym; Gastrointestinal diseases; Literature search; Medline; PubMed
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2021.101264
  4. Health Info Libr J. 2021 Aug 23.
      BACKGROUND: While information evaluation is an essential component of evidence based practice, it remains unclear how nurses perceive their own source evaluation skills and what evaluation criteria they typically apply.OBJECTIVES: This study aims to determine nurses' self-reported confidence in their evaluation skills and their actual source evaluation ability. The findings will guide information literacy instruction.
    METHODS: A questionnaire asked recently graduated nurses from four institutions in the Intermountain West (USA) to rate their confidence in evaluating information and to provide examples of evaluation criteria they typically applied. The quality of these criteria was rated by nursing librarians, then compared with reported confidence in evaluation, years employed as a nurse and highest degree level.
    RESULTS: While nurses' self-reported confidence levels about source evaluation largely matched their ability, their evaluation criteria showed a low level of sophistication and did not match the recommended criteria by professional organizations. Graduate education, not years of work experience, was predictive of the quality of criteria used by nurses, suggesting the importance of more instruction on source evaluation for nursing students.
    CONCLUSIONS: Nursing educators, including librarians, need to teach evaluation skills at the undergraduate level. Further investigation into building evaluation skills in nurses is warranted.
    Keywords:  critical appraisal; evidence-based nursing (EBN); information litreracy; students, nursing
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12395
  5. FEBS J. 2021 Aug 26.
      Enzymes play essential roles in all life processes and are used extensively in the biomedical and biotechnological fields. However, enzyme-related information is spread across multiple resources making its retrieval time-consuming. In response to this challenge, the Enzyme Portal has been established to facilitate enzyme research, by providing a freely available hub where researchers can easily find and explore enzyme-related information. It integrates relevant enzyme data for a wide range of species from various resources such as UniProtKB, PDB and ChEMBL. Here, we describe what type of enzyme-related data the Enzyme Portal provides, how the information is organised and, by show-casing two potential use cases, how to access and retrieve it.
    Keywords:  EC number; database; enzyme; metabolite
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/febs.16168
  6. Fam Pract. 2021 Aug 23. pii: cmab099. [Epub ahead of print]
      BACKGROUND: The internet has become a common source of health information; however, little is known about online health information-seeking behaviour (HISB) among patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of online health information-seeking and its associated factors among patients in primary care in Malaysia. We also examined the reasons for, and the sources of, online health information-seeking, patients' level of trust in the information found and what the information was used for.
    METHODS: A cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted on patients who attended a primary care clinic. The questionnaire included the use of the internet to seek health information, sources and types of health information, eHealth literacy, patients' trust in online information, and how patients appraise and use online health information.
    RESULTS: Out of 381 patients in this study, 54.7% (n = 208) used the internet to search for health information. Patients mainly sought information via Google (96.2%) and the most common websites that they visited were Wikipedia (45.2%) and MyHEALTH (37.5%). Higher levels of education, longer duration of internet use, and higher eHealth literacy were significantly associated with online HISB. Patients' trust in websites (45.6%) and social media (20.7%) was low when compared to trust in healthcare professionals (87.9%). Only 12.9% (n = 22) of patients had discussed online health information with their doctors.
    CONCLUSION: Online HISB was common among primary care patients; however, their eHealth literacy was low, with suboptimal appraisal skills to evaluate the accuracy of online health information.
    Keywords:  Consumer health informatics; health information; health literacy; information-seeking behaviour; internet; primary care
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmab099
  7. J Health Commun. 2021 Aug 26. 1-9
      Cancer survivors' emotional well-being is an integral part of their overall health and may influence their recovery and survival. The current study used the 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 5 Cycle 2 (N = 593) to evaluate the determinants of cancer survivors' emotional well-being. Internet cancer information seeking, social support, patient-centered communication, cancer beliefs, and self-efficacy to take care of one's health were examined as factors to be associated with cancer survivors' emotional well-being using structural equation modeling. Social support, cancer beliefs, and self-efficacy to take care of one's health were found to be significantly associated with emotional well-being among cancer survivors. Cancer beliefs mediated the associations of cancer information seeking using the Internet, social support, and patient-centered communication with cancer survivors' emotional well-being while health self-efficacy mediated the associations of social support and patient-centered communication with cancer survivors' emotional well-being. It is important for health practitioners to focus on improving social support, self-efficacy for managing health, and cancer-related beliefs in order to enhance the emotional well-being of cancer survivors.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2021.1966685
  8. Vaccines (Basel). 2021 Aug 23. pii: 933. [Epub ahead of print]9(8):
      BACKGROUND: The research focused on the relationships between attitudes towards vaccination and the trust placed in different sources of information (science, experts and the information available on the Internet) before and during COVID-19.METHOD: A longitudinal design was applied with the first measurement in February 2018 (N = 1039). The second measurement (N = 400) was carried out in December 2020 to test if the pandemic influenced the trust in different sources of information.
    RESULTS: The final analyses carried out on final sample of 400 participants showed that there has been no change in trust in the Internet as a source of knowledge about health during the pandemic. However, the trust in science, physicians, subjective health knowledge, as well as the attitude towards the vaccination has declined. Regression analysis also showed that changes in the level of trust in physicians and science were associated with analogous (in the same direction) changes in attitudes toward vaccination. The study was also focused on the trust in different sources of health knowledge as possible predictors of willingness to be vaccinated against SARS-nCoV-2. However, it appeared that the selected predictors explained a small part of the variance. This suggests that attitudes toward the new COVID vaccines may have different sources than attitudes toward vaccines that have been known to the public for a long time.
    Keywords:  COVID-19; Internet as the source of health information; attitude towards vaccination; trust in physicians; trust in science
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9080933
  9. BMC Complement Med Ther. 2021 Aug 21. 21(1): 213
      BACKGROUND: The use of dietary and herbal supplements (DIHES) is widespread among people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). PwMS are a highly informed patient group, and they use several types of sources to seek information on subjects related to their disease. However, it is still unknown where PwMS seek information about DIHES. It is important that PwMS make decisions about DIHES based on accurate, useful and accessible information. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore where PwMS seek information on DIHES and how they experience and engage with this information.METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eighteen PwMS using DIHES. Participants were selected from a cross-sectional survey. Diversity sampling was used, based on relevant characteristics such as gender and number of DIHES used during the past 12 months. The interviews were conducted face-to-face or over the telephone and lasted between 30 min and 1 hour. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic network analysis in NVivo 12 Pro software.
    RESULTS: Three main themes emerged in the analysis: i) engaging with healthcare professionals (HCPs) regarding DIHES, ii) social networks as a source of information regarding DIHES, and iii) reliance on bodily sensations. Most participants navigated all three types of sources. All participants had at some point discussed DIHES with an HCP. Information from HCPs was considered reliable and valuable, but HCPs were viewed as uncommitted to the dialogue about DIHES. Recommendations from others were often the driver of decisions regarding use of DIHES. However, the information from PwMS' networks could be overwhelming and difficult to navigate. Finally, PwMS relied on their own experiences regarding DIHES and let their bodily sensations guide their use of DIHES.
    CONCLUSIONS: Participants often rely on all three types of information sources to create a nuanced and comprehensive information base. However, PwMS may feel overwhelmed or confused with all the information they have gathered. These findings indicate the need for better guidance for PwMS concerning DIHES and an openness among HCPs to engage in dialogue.
    Keywords:  Dietary supplements; Herbal supplements; Information seeking; Multiple sclerosis
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-021-03377-0
  10. Cartilage. 2021 Aug 23. 19476035211040161
      OBJECTIVE: Regenerative medicine is experiencing a strong expansion worldwide, including the treatment of some common orthopedic pathologies, with an increase in physicians adopting these technologies. This growing interest has been associated with an equally significant spread of websites dedicated to public information on this topic, often lacking scientific bases. This study aims to evaluate the quality of information on the World Wide Web about stem cells for cartilage disorders in orthopedic practice.DESIGN: On February 19, 2021 we performed a search on Google using as keywords "cartilage stem cells," considering only the freely accessible sites in Italian, English, French, and Spanish. We selected the first 50 valid results for each language and evaluated them using the DISCERN scale.
    RESULTS: A total of 249 sites were observed, of which 49 were discarded as duplicates (8) or not relevant to the topic (41). Of the 200 sites surveyed, 47 were affiliated to a singular surgeon (23.5%), 31 to private stakeholders (15.5%), 73 to information sites (36.5%), 8 to public hospitals (4%), 13 to universities (6.5%), and 28 referred to international scientific journals (14%). Only 76 sites (38%) were rated as fair or better, while the remaining 124 (62%) were classified as poor or very poor.
    CONCLUSIONS: The quality of the information promoted for stem cells in orthopedics is generally low, although a significant minority of the sites offers good quality information. A greater commitment on the part of surgeons and other stakeholders is desirable to promote information on regenerative medicine through scientific criteria supported by adequate literature.
    Keywords:  DISCERN; cartilage; orthopedics; patient information; regenerative medicine; stem cells
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/19476035211040161
  11. Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Aug 23. pii: 1083. [Epub ahead of print]9(8):
      BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia has gained popularity over the last decade. This study aimed to assess whether YouTube videos sufficiently serve as an adjunctive tool for learning how to perform an ultrasound-guided brachial plexus block (BPB).METHODS: All YouTube videos were classified, based on their sources, as either academic, manufacturer, educational, or individual videos. The metrics, accuracy, utility, reliability (using the Journal of American Medical Association Score benchmark criteria (JAMAS)), and educational quality (using the Global Quality Score (GQS) and Brachial Plexus Block Specific Quality Score (BSQS)) were validated.
    RESULTS: Here, 175 videos were included. Academic (1.19 ± 0.62, mean ± standard deviation), manufacturer (1.17 ± 0.71), and educational videos (1.15 ± 0.76) had better JAMAS accuracy and reliability than individual videos (0.26 ± 0.67) (p < 0.001). Manufacturer (11.22 ± 1.63) and educational videos (10.33 ± 3.34) had a higher BSQS than individual videos (7.32 ± 4.20) (p < 0.001). All sources weakly addressed the equipment preparation and post-procedure questions after BSQS analysis.
    CONCLUSIONS: The reliability and quality of ultrasound-guided BPB videos differ depending on their source. As YouTube is a useful educational platform for learners and teachers, global societies of regional anesthesiologists should set a standard for videos.
    Keywords:  YouTube; brachial plexus block; learning; ultrasonography; ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9081083
  12. Nurse Educ Today. 2021 Aug 18. pii: S0260-6917(21)00364-6. [Epub ahead of print]107 105107
      BACKGROUND: YouTube has become an important social media platform for teaching nursing skills. However, the content, reliability and quality levels of the videos on this platform are not adequately known.OBJECTIVES: This study aims to evaluate the content, reliability and quality of YouTube videos on ventrogluteal injection application.
    DESIGN: Descriptive.
    SETTINGS: Online.
    PARTICIPANTS: 26 videos about ventrogluteal injection.
    METHODS: Videos were searched using the keyword "ventrogluteal injection". The content of the 26 videos meeting the inclusion criteria were evaluated using the "Ventrogluteal Intramuscular Injection Skill Form", the reliability with the "DISCERN Questionnaire", and the quality levels using the "Global Quality Scale". The videos were categorized by their theme, type and upload source, and analysed statistically.
    RESULTS: Of the 26 videos meeting the inclusion criteria, 21 (80.8%) were classified as useful information, 5 (19.2%) as misleading information by theme, 22 (84.6%) as educational, 4 (15.4%) as hormone therapy by type, 5 (19.2%) as official institutions, 13 (50%) as individual by source of uploads. The content, reliability, quality score of useful videos were higher than misleading videos. There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between reliability score and the source of video uploads. Pairwise comparisons indicated that there was no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) between the source of uploads of video and characteristics.
    CONCLUSIONS: The use of the examined YouTube videos in the training of injection into the ventrogluteal site appears to have various risks in terms of ethics and patient safety. It may be suggested that the injection videos should be prepared by competent institutions/individuals, using best practice guides to increase the content, reliability and quality levels. It should particularly be borne in mind that videos on hormone therapy can be a public health threat.
    Keywords:  Education; Intramuscular injection; Nursing; Social media; Ventrogluteal injection
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.105107
  13. Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Aug 23. pii: 1084. [Epub ahead of print]9(8):
      OBJECTIVE: Acquiring online health-related information has become increasingly widespread. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the quality of the most-viewed YouTube videos on dysphagia regarding exercises and compensated maneuvers.METHOD: We searched for the keywords "dysphagia exercise", "dysphagia rehabilitation", "dysphagia maneuver", "dysphagia therapy", and "dysphagia compensation" on YouTube on 5 February 2021. The educational quality of videos on YouTube was investigated based on the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and categorized into three groups: high-, intermediate-, and low-quality. The modified DISCERN tool was used to evaluate the reliability of the YouTube videos. Video parameters were compared between the groups according to the quality of the videos.
    RESULTS: Of the 51 videos evaluated, according to the GQS, 54.9% (n = 28) were of high-quality, 35.3% (n = 18) were of intermediate-quality, and 9.8% (n = 5) were of low-quality, respectively. When the video parameters were compared among the groups, there were no significant differences in the number of views, likes, dislikes, or comments per day (p > 0.05). However, there was a significant difference in the DISCERN scores between the groups (p < 0.001).
    CONCLUSION: YouTube can be deemed as a predominant source for high-quality videos on dysphagia exercise and compensated maneuvers. However, YouTube should be accepted as a mixed pool, with high-, intermediate-, and low-quality videos. Therefore, healthcare professionals, such as physicians and therapists, should verify the suitability and quality of the video, and suggest it to the patient, to ensure that the patient obtains the appropriate information.
    Keywords:  YouTube; deglutition; dysphagia; exercise; rehabilitation; swallowing difficulty
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9081084
  14. Arthrosc Sports Med Rehabil. 2021 Aug;3(4): e1055-e1063
      Purpose: To investigate the information quality on YouTube regarding rehabilitation and return to sport (RTS) after hip arthroscopy.Methods: By use of private browsing and predefined search terms, 217 unique videos regarding RTS and rehabilitation after hip arthroscopy were included and systematically reviewed. A total of 164 videos were included in the final analysis. Videos were scored using 4 scoring systems: (1) Journal of the American Medical Association benchmark criteria, (2) the Global Quality Score, (3) a score for RTS after hip arthroscopy, and (4) a score for rehabilitation after hip arthroscopy.
    Results: A large majority of the included videos provided substandard information quality, dependability, and precision. RTS videos that were uploaded by physicians had a significantly higher Journal of the American Medical Association score, Global Quality Score, and RTS score compared with commercial and personal testimony videos (P = .0003, P = .0021, and P = .0005, respectively). Physician videos pertaining to RTS were also significantly longer than videos in other categories (P = .0397).
    Conclusions: The quality and reliability of video content on YouTube pertaining to rehabilitation and RTS after hip arthroscopy are generally poor. The educational content of YouTube videos produced by physicians is of significantly higher quality as compared with non-physicians, patient testimonials, and commercials.
    Clinical Relevance: The quality of the information patients receive on rehabilitation and RTS after hip arthroscopy is important for successful outcomes.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asmr.2021.03.011
  15. Eye Contact Lens. 2021 Sep 01. 47(9): 526-532
      OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the content, quality, and reliability of keratoconus-related YouTube videos as sources for patient education.METHODS: YouTube was queried using the keywords "keratoconus," "contact lenses for keratoconus," "corneal cross-linking," and "corneal transplant surgery for keratoconus." Two ophthalmologists independently classified videos as useful, misleading, or patient testimonials and rated them using the DISCERN score (range, 16-75), Journal of the American Medical Association score (JAMAS; range, 0-4), Global Quality Score (GQS; range, 1-5), and Keratoconus-Specific Score (KSS; range, 0-32). Interrater agreement was analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficients. Multivariate linear regression models were fitted to identify factors associated with quality and popularity indices.
    RESULTS: Of the 300 videos screened, 201 were included in the study, 58% were classified as useful, 13% as misleading, and 29% as patient views. Overall video quality was poor, with an average DISCERN score of 22, JAMAS of 1.2, GQS of 1.8, and KSS of 4.5. Misleading videos scored significantly lower than average but had higher popularity compared with useful videos. Video length inversely correlated with popularity index. Television shows were more likely to share misleading information than other uploaders, whereas all videos uploaded by university channels provided useful information but constituted only 12% of all videos.
    CONCLUSIONS: Videos rated the best source of information were not the ones most popular. YouTube has great potential to change the attitude of individuals both for and against the right choice. Therefore, health professionals should act to use this potential in favor of effective and reliable health communication.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/ICL.0000000000000817
  16. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Aug 12. pii: 8507. [Epub ahead of print]18(16):
      The entire world is faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also accompanied by an infodemic. This refers to the rapid spread of (accurate and false) information, mainly through internet usage increasing. Digital health literacy (DHL) is therefore important for addressing challenges related to online health information and services, as well as for navigation through the complex information landscape with huge amounts of different (and conflicting) information about COVID-19. The aim of this study is to examine the level of DHL in relation to COVID-19 in Slovenian university students and to determine online information-seeking behaviour in order to plan and prepare effective communication interventions for this sub-population. A cross-sectional survey, administered by an online questionnaire, was conducted to collect data on DHL. A total of 3621 students participated, of whom 70% were female and the average age was 22.65 years (SD = 4.65). Bivariate analyses were performed to assess the association of key characteristics with DHL. Overall, the results show that the level of DHL among students is sufficient. Most difficulties were reported in assessing the reliability of information (n = 1484, 49.3%). Approximately one third of the students (n = 847, 27.9%) reported having problems in finding information of their interest, and somewhat more (n = 900, 29.6%) reported difficulties in making a selection among all the information found. Students with a sufficient level of DHL are more likely to seek information through search engines and websites of official institutions, while students with a limited level of DHL more frequently reported using social media for health information searches. It is necessary to establish interventions for a systematic lift of the DHL and health literacy (HL) of all population groups.
    Keywords:  COVID-19; Slovenia; communication digital behaviours; digital health literacy; health literacy; infodemic; information-seeking; students
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168507