bims-librar Biomed News
on Biomedical librarianship
Issue of 2022‒02‒13
twenty papers selected by
Thomas Krichel
Open Library Society
  1. Rural Libraries as Resources and Partners for Outside Active Play Streets.
  2. Search Like an Expert: Reducing Expertise Disparity Using a Hybrid Neural Index for COVID-19 Queries.
  3. Outbreak.info Research Library: A standardized, searchable platform to discover and explore COVID-19 resources and data.
  4. Ensuring rigor in systematic reviews: Part 7, critical appraisal of systematic review quality.
  5. Searching for health information on the Internet - Results from the KomPaS study.
  6. The complementary and substitutive value of online health information.
  7. Do Websites Serve Our Patients Well? A Comparative Analysis of Online Information on Cosmetic Injectables.
  8. Barriers and facilitators of implementing an information system for health grey literature in Iran: Experts' views and perspectives.
  9. Ten simple rules for improving research data discovery.
  10. Content and Quality of Information about Stroke in Wikipedia across Multiple Languages.
  11. Health information seeking by women with physical disabilities: A qualitative analysis.
  12. Sources of information used by women during pregnancy and the perceived quality.
  13. Sinus Surgery and Balloon Sinuplasty: What Do Patients Want to Know?
  14. Assessing the Quality of Patient Information for Vestibular Schwannoma on the Open Source Video Sharing Platform YouTube.
  15. Testicular pain and youtube™: are uploaded videos a reliable source to get information?
  16. Readability assessment of patient educational materials for shoulder arthroplasty from top academic orthopedic institutions.
  17. Mapping audiovisual content providers and resources in Greece.
  18. Reliability of online pregnancy-related information and associated feelings of worry among expectant women in Qatar.
  19. Readability of patient educational materials in venous thrombosis. Analysis of the 2021 ESVS guidelines and comparison with other medical societies information.
  20. The Weight of Surgical Knowledge: Navigating Information Overload.
  1. Health Promot Pract. 2022 Feb 10. 15248399211073602
    Rural Libraries as Resources and Partners for Outside Active Play Streets.
    Noah Lenstra, Sandra Slater, Keshia M Pollack Porter, M Renée Umstattd Meyer.
      BACKGROUND: Urban and rural areas have different types of built environments and community infrastructure, which lead to different types of successful community-based physical activity initiatives. Temporary Play Streets are a supported way to increase physical activity and perceptions of the built environment as a space for active lifestyles.PURPOSE: Within the field of public health, public libraries constitute an underutilized community partner. To begin to understand the capacity of rural librarians to support rural Play Streets, a cross-sectional questionnaire was developed for distribution to rural librarians.
    METHODS: The sampling frame targeted members of the membership-based U.S. Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL). Among respondents, 65% reported offering outdoor physical activity programs in the past, and 61% reported continuing to offer versions of this programming during the COVID-19 pandemic. Librarians work with a broad range of community partners on this programming, and already own much of the equipment necessary for a successful Play Streets initiative.
    CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study corroborate claims from previous research, which shows that in small and rural communities, public libraries have the capacity to play a role in promoting physical activity through involvement in community partnerships. Additional work is needed to understand, evaluate, and support this opportunity to weave rural librarians into community-based physical activity promotion efforts more fully.
    Keywords:  built environment; community partnerships; physical activity; preventive health; social determinants of health
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399211073602
  2. J Biomed Inform. 2022 Feb 07. pii: S1532-0464(22)00021-1. [Epub ahead of print] 104005
    Search Like an Expert: Reducing Expertise Disparity Using a Hybrid Neural Index for COVID-19 Queries.
    Vincent Nguyen, Maciej Rybinski, Sarvnaz Karimi, Zhenchang Xing.
      Consumers from non-medical backgrounds often look for information regarding a specific medical information need; however, they are limited by their lack of medical knowledge and may not be able to find reputable resources. As a case study, we investigate reducing this knowledge barrier to allow consumers to achieve search effectiveness comparable to that of an expert, or a medical professional, for COVID-19 related questions. We introduce and evaluate a hybrid index model that allows a consumer to formulate queries using consumer language to find relevant answers to COVID-19 questions. Our aim is to reduce performance degradation between medical professional queries and those of a consumer. We use a universal sentence embedding model to project consumer queries into the same semantic space as professional queries. We then incorporate sentence embeddings into a search framework alongside an inverted index. Documents from this index are retrieved using a novel scoring function that considers sentence embeddings and BM25 scoring. We find that our framework alleviates the expertise disparity, which we validate using an additional set of crowd-sourced-consumer-queries even in an unsupervised setting. We also propose an extension of our method, where the sentence encoder is optimised in a supervised setup. Our framework allows for a consumer to search using consumer queries but match the search performance to that of an professional.
    Keywords:  Biomedical search; COVID-19; Dense retrieval; Information retrieval; Medical misinformation; Natural language processing; Neural index; Universal sentence embeddings
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104005
  3. bioRxiv. 2022 Feb 01. pii: 2022.01.20.477133. [Epub ahead of print]
    Outbreak.info Research Library: A standardized, searchable platform to discover and explore COVID-19 resources and data.
    Ginger Tsueng, Julia Mullen, Manar Alkuzweny, Marco Cano, Benjamin Rush, Emily Haag, Outbreak Curators, Latif Alaa Abdel, Xinghua Zhou, Zhongchao Qian, Kristian G Andersen, Chunlei Wu, Andrew I Su, Karthik Gangavarapu, Laura D Hughes.
      To combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have been conducting research at breakneck speeds, producing over 52,000 peer reviewed articles within the first 12 months. In contrast, a little over 1,000 peer reviewed articles were published within the first 12 months of the SARS-CoV-1 pandemic starting in 2002. In addition to publications, there has also been an upsurge in clinical trials to develop vaccines and treatments, scientific protocols to study SARS-CoV-2, methodology for epidemiological modeling, and datasets spanning molecular studies to social science research. One of the largest challenges has been keeping track of the vast amounts of newly generated disparate data and research that exist in independent repositories. To address this issue, we developed outbreak.info , which provides a standardized, searchable interface of heterogeneous data resources on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2. Unifying metadata from 14 data repositories, we have assembled a collection of over 200,000 publications, clinical trials, datasets, protocols, and other resources as of October 2021. We used a rigorous schema to enforce a consistent format across different data sources and resource types, and linked related resources where possible. This enables users to quickly retrieve information across data repositories, regardless of resource type or repository location. Outbreak.info also combines the combined research library with spatiotemporal genomics data on SARS-CoV-2 variants and epidemiological data on COVID-19 cases and deaths. The web interface provides interactive visualizations and reports to explore the unified data and generate hypotheses. In addition to providing a web interface, we also publish the data we have assembled and standardized in a high performance public API and an R package. Finally, we discuss the challenges inherent in combining metadata from scattered and heterogeneous resources and provide recommendations to streamline this process to aid scientific research.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.20.477133
  4. Heart Lung. 2022 Feb 03. pii: S0147-9563(22)00008-5. [Epub ahead of print]53 32-35
    Ensuring rigor in systematic reviews: Part 7, critical appraisal of systematic review quality.
    Alexandria Brackett, Janene Batten.
      Methodological transparency and reproducibility are essential for systematic reviews. Peer review of systematic review manuscripts ensures researchers achieve transparency and reproducibility. Using critical appraisal and quality assessment tools is a methodological way for peer reviewers to conduct a thorough critique to assess the rigor and transparency of the systematic review.
    Keywords:  AMSTAR 2; JBI; Meta-analysis; PRESS; Peer review; ROBIS; Systematic review
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrtlng.2022.01.008
  5. J Health Monit. 2021 Jun;6(2): 67-73
    Searching for health information on the Internet - Results from the KomPaS study.
    Kerstin Horch.
      Searching for information about health is a key component of health behaviour. It is important because information generally has a significant impact on the outcome of decision-making processes, and this also applies to informed decisions about health-related issues. Representative results from the study 'KomPaS: survey on communication and patient-safety', which was conducted by the Robert Koch Institute, demonstrate that the Internet is the most popular choice for women and men who use media to search for health information. However, the results also demonstrate statistically significant differences by sex and socioeconomic status. People in the low socioeconomic status group search less frequently for health information on the Internet than people in the medium and high status groups. Furthermore, women up to the age of 65 use the Internet to search for information about health more frequently than men of the same age do. These differences reverse from the age of 65 onwards.
    Keywords:  INTERNET; KOMPAS STUDY; SEARCH FOR HEALTH INFORMATION; SEX; SOCIAL STATUS
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.25646/7147
  6. Health Soc Care Community. 2022 Feb 08.
    The complementary and substitutive value of online health information.
    Jingjing Gao.
      The Internet plays a significant role in health information searching, sharing and emotional support. However, scholars have devoted little attention to the complementary and substitute value of online health information from diseases, especially chronic diseases, health insurance, barriers to health resources and their interaction effects with income. This research uses data from the 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 2020), the latest HINTS survey that includes seeking online health information questions critical to this research. This paper proposes that the factors contributing to seeking online health information can be categorized into two modalities - complementary and substitutive. Concerning the complementary value, I argue that individuals with certain health conditions use online health information as a complementary health resource in addition to traditional health resources such as doctors to understand their health issues better. Online health information also functions as substitute information sources for individuals who have experienced more barriers to typical health information resources.
    Keywords:  chronic disease; health insurance; online health information
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13748
  7. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2022 Feb 03.
    Do Websites Serve Our Patients Well? A Comparative Analysis of Online Information on Cosmetic Injectables.
    Anooj Patel, Chitang Joshi, Jeffrey Varghese, Abbas M Hassan, Jeffrey E Janis, Robert D Galiano.
      BACKGROUND: Patients access online cosmetic health information to help with decision making. This information is unregulated, variable in quality, and may be biased. This study compared the most popular cosmetic injectables websites to assess their readability, quality, and technical performance.METHODS: A Google search for "Botox" (botulinum toxin type A) and "fillers" was performed in July of 2020, identifying the most popular health information websites. Sites were analyzed for their readability and quality of health information using the validated DISCERN criteria and the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct principles. Technical qualities were evaluated using two website performance algorithms, WooRank and WebsiteGrader.
    RESULTS: Eighty-five websites were analyzed (13 academic/hospital websites, seven commercial websites, 25 private practice board-certified websites, seven private practice not-board-certified websites, 16 online health reference websites, and 17 other websites). The mean readability consensus score was 11 (eleventh grade reading level). The mean DISCERN quality scores were higher for online health reference websites compared to academic/hospital websites (p = 0.045), commercial websites (p = 0.045), private practice board-certified websites (p < 0.001), and private practice not-board-certified websites (p = .002). No correlation between a website's rank and its DISCERN score was found (ρ = -0.07; p = 0.49).
    CONCLUSIONS: Cosmetic injectable websites are too difficult to read by the sixth grade standard recommended by the National Institutes of Health and the American Medical Association. Online health reference sites are higher in quality than physician sites. This has implications for the ability of many patients to be fully informed consumers. The readability, quality, and technical aspects of websites may affect the overall accessibility of patient health information.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000008921
  8. Health Info Libr J. 2022 Feb 11.
    Barriers and facilitators of implementing an information system for health grey literature in Iran: Experts' views and perspectives.
    Abbas Mirzaei, Sirous Panahi, Mostafa Langarizadeh, Shahram Sedghi.
      BACKGROUND: Despite the importance of health grey literature, there is not a comprehensive information system for managing these valuable resources in Iran.OBJECTIVES: This study aimed at identifying the barriers to and facilitators of implementing a comprehensive national information system for health grey literature.
    MATERIAL AND METHOD: This study applied the qualitative research method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 19 experts in related fields. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data in MAXQDA. The data were codified and revised constantly and classified in some selected main and sub-categories based on their relative similarities and differences.
    RESULTS: Data analysis identified some barriers to the implementation of an information system for health grey literature in Iran, including two main categories (and some sub-categories): managerial issues (performance related issues, coordination issues, monitoring and supervision issues and attitudinal issues) and issues on data integration (data collecting issues, data recording issues, quality control issues, and issues on data organization, dissemination and use).
    CONCLUSION: Designing a national system for health grey literature in Iran needs a powerful authority, removing possible intersectional conflicts, a selection committee, written policies and strict quality control criteria, and protocols for storage, access, retrieval and metadata evaluation.
    Keywords:  grey literature; health policy; health services research; information systems
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12424
  9. PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Feb;18(2): e1009768
    Ten simple rules for improving research data discovery.
    Nicole Contaxis, Jason Clark, Anthony Dellureficio, Sara Gonzales, Sara Mannheimer, Peter R Oxley, Melissa A Ratajeski, Alisa Surkis, Amy M Yarnell, Michelle Yee, Kristi Holmes.
      
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009768
  10. Eur Neurol. 2022 Feb 08. 1-5
    Content and Quality of Information about Stroke in Wikipedia across Multiple Languages.
    Juan Manuel Marquez-Romero, Ángel Lee, Elizabeth Soto-Cabrera, Bernardo César Hernández-Curiel, Carlos Alberto Prado-Aguilar.
      BACKGROUND: Given the high contribution of stroke to the global burden of disease, there is a need for good-quality information on Web platforms such as Wikipedia.AIMS: This study aimed to describe the quality of the Wikipedia articles on stroke written in different languages.
    METHODS: We studied the world's 30 most spoken languages. With the DISCERN score, we evaluated the quality of the information within the Wikipedia articles. Three investigators assessed each of the texts translated to English. We also registered the word count, the number of references, and if the text referred to the emergency status of stroke, cues to suspect a stroke, and allusions to endovascular treatment.
    RESULTS: There is a Wikipedia article for stroke in 23 out of the 30 languages. The mean DISCERN score was 35 29.9 ± 9.2. Overall quality ranged from 3/5 in 26.1% to 1/5 in 17.4%. Word count had a mean of 36 3,145.8 ± 3,048.9 words, and the texts included a mean of 43.1 ± 57.3 references; 69.6% of the articles referred to stroke as a medical emergency, 52.2% included awareness symptoms, and 34.8% included endovascular management among the stroke treatments. Three pages included steroids as part of the stroke treatment. The DISCERN score was not correlated with the number of speakers, but it was positively correlated with the number of references (r = 0.90, p < 0.001) and the number of words (r = 0.78, p < 0.001) in the articles.
    CONCLUSION: The analyzed Wikipedia articles do not contain relevant and up-to-date information to the general population. Further, the content varies widely across the different languages and is missing for some of them. The missing versions disproportionally affect millions of potential information seekers in undeveloped countries.
    Keywords:  DISCERN instrument; Information quality; Stroke
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1159/000521938
  11. Disabil Health J. 2022 Jan 10. pii: S1936-6574(22)00001-2. [Epub ahead of print] 101268
    Health information seeking by women with physical disabilities: A qualitative analysis.
    Rosemary B Hughes, Leanne Beers, Susan Robinson-Whelen.
      BACKGROUND: Health information seeking is critical to medical decision-making and optimal health. Although researchers have begun to explore how people with disabilities search for health information, no studies have investigated health information seeking by women with physical disabilities.OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the health information seeking experiences of women with physical disabilities.
    METHOD: We conducted a series of semi-structured, online focus group meetings with 21 women with disabilities. Sessions were recorded and transcribed, and data were analyzed using conventional content analysis.
    RESULTS: Two broad themes emerged: 1) pathways to information on general health; sexual and reproductive health; as well as bowel, bladder, and other pelvic health issues; and 2) perceived facilitators and barriers to obtaining health information. Information pathways differed by the type of information sought. Internet was a commonly used resource, with a high value placed on social media interaction among peers. Self-advocacy emerged as a prominent facilitator of health information seeking. Barriers identified were lack of disability-related education, limited accessibility, and providers' negative attitudes.
    CONCLUSION: This is the first known in-depth qualitative exploration of health information seeking by women with disabilities. Study findings revealed pathways to information commonly used by women with disabilities. The study also identified notable gaps and challenges to health information seeking including the need for improved provider education and training. Findings highlight the importance of the availability and accessibility of high quality, health-related information essential for the health and well-being of women with disabilities.
    Keywords:  Disability; Health information; Information seeking behaviors; Qualitative research; Women
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2022.101268
  12. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2022 Feb 08. 22(1): 109
    Sources of information used by women during pregnancy and the perceived quality.
    Maaike Vogels-Broeke, Darie Daemers, Luc Budé, Raymond de Vries, Marianne Nieuwenhuijze.
      BACKGROUND: Access to reliable information is critical to women's experience and wellbeing during pregnancy and childbirth. In our information-rich society, women are exposed to a wide range of information sources. The primary objective of this study was to explore women's use of information sources during pregnancy and to examine the perceived usefulness and trustworthiness of these sources.METHOD: A quantitative cross-sectional study of Dutch women's experiences with various information sources during pregnancy, including professional (e.g. healthcare system), and informal sources, divided into conventional (e.g. family or peers) and digital sources (e.g. websites or apps). Exploratory backward stepwise multiple regression was performed to identify associations between the perceived quality of information sources and personal characteristics.
    RESULTS: A total of 1922 pregnant women were included in this study. The most commonly used information sources were midwives (91.5%), family or friends (79.3%), websites (77.9%), and apps (61%). More than 80% of women found professional information sources trustworthy and useful, while digital sources were perceived as less trustworthy and useful. Personal factors explain only a small part of the variation in the perceived quality of information sources.
    CONCLUSION: Even though digital sources are perceived as less trustworthy and useful than professional and conventional sources, they are among the most commonly used sources of information for pregnant women. To meet the information needs of the contemporary generation of pregnant women it is essential that professionals help in the development of digital information sources.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-04422-7
  13. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2022 Feb 08. 1945998221076803
    Sinus Surgery and Balloon Sinuplasty: What Do Patients Want to Know?
    Scott N Fassas, Andrew M Peterson, Nathan Farrokhian, Jordan G Zonner, Emily L Cummings, Zachary Arambula, Alexander G Chiu, Meha Goyal Fox.
      OBJECTIVE: Limited knowledge exists regarding the information patients seek online about sinus procedures. The goals of our study were to identify the most searched online queries regarding functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) and balloon sinuplasty and evaluate the sources to which patients are directed.STUDY DESIGN: Observational.
    SETTING: Online Google Database.
    METHODS: Google data were analyzed using the search engine optimization tool Ahrefs. People Also Ask (PAA) questions (extracted from Google searches) helped identify questions for analysis of search query volume. Search results were categorized into specific topics, and the source (eg, academic vs medical practice) of the information was identified. The JAMA benchmark criteria were used to determine the quality of the online resource.
    RESULTS: The most searched term (average monthly queries) on Google was "sinus surgery" (13,190), followed by "balloon sinuplasty" (9212). For FESS and balloon sinuplasty, most questions focused on treatment of sinusitis (71.64% vs 79.19%) and preoperative inquiries about sinus issues (11.50% vs 11.35%). Answers to PAA questions for FESS were obtained from academic sources at a higher frequency compared to balloon sinuplasty (26.7% vs 10.3%, P = .016) but a lower frequency from medical practice websites (15.2% vs 29.3%, P = .042). The mean (SD) JAMA scores for FESS and balloon sinuplasty sources were 1.59 (1.46) and 1.40 (1.46), respectively.
    CONCLUSION: There is a high volume of online search queries regarding FESS and balloon sinuplasty. The quality of the sources could be improved by addressing authorship, attribution, disclosure, and currency. This information may help otolaryngologists better address patient queries.
    Keywords:  Google analytics; Internet; balloon sinuplasty; chronic rhinosinusitis; information quality; machine learning; sinus surgery
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/01945998221076803
  14. Otol Neurotol. 2022 Mar 01. 43(3): e316-e322
    Assessing the Quality of Patient Information for Vestibular Schwannoma on the Open Source Video Sharing Platform YouTube.
    Lawrence Oh, Kevin Phan, Nicholas E Jufas, Nirmal P Patel.
      BACKGROUND: Patients frequently use the internet to gain information and make decisions about their health conditions. This work aims to assess the quality of information about Vestibular Schwannoma on a popular video sharing platform, YouTube (Alphabet Inc.).OBJECTIVES: To assess quality of the most popular vestibular schwannoma videos using recognized scoring systems and whether video quality metrics correlated with video popularity based on metadata analysis.
    SETTING: Public domain.
    STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional Study.
    METHODS: The YouTube website was systematically searched on separate days with a formal search strategy to identify videos relevant to vestibular schwannoma. Each video was viewed and scored by three independent assessors, using scores for quality and disease specific accuracy. Popularity metrics were analyzed and compared to video quality. Patient surveys were conducted to further assess their perspectives of the included videos.
    RESULTS: A total of 23 YouTube videos were included. In terms of Essential and Ideal Video Completeness Criteria, the mean scores ranged from 4.8 to 5.0 (out of 12), indicating moderate video quality. The average DISCERN score ranged from 30.0 to 36.7, indicating lower reliability. The mean JAMA scores ranged from 1.96 to 2.48, indicating average quality. Based on metrics including DISCERN and JAMA instruments, the information in the YouTube videos were of low to average quality and reliability. Rater scoring was reliable. Viewer engagement correlated poorly with video quality except for JAMA metrics.
    CONCLUSION: Video quality on YouTube with respect to Vestibular Schwannoma is of low to average quality. Viewer engagement and popularity correlated poorly with video quality. Clinicians should direct their patients to high quality videos and should consider uploading their own high-quality videos.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/MAO.0000000000003462
  15. Int J Impot Res. 2022 Feb 08.
    Testicular pain and youtube™: are uploaded videos a reliable source to get information?
    Alberto Melchionna, Claudia Collà Ruvolo, Marco Capece, Roberto La Rocca, Giuseppe Celentano, Gianluigi Califano, Massimiliano Creta, Luigi Napolitano, Simone Morra, Simone Cilio, Carmine Turco, Vincenzo Caputo, Nicola Longo, Vincenzo Mirone, Ciro Imbimbo.
      Several previous studies on YouTube™ on urological field have already been published. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the quality information of YouTubeTM videos on testicular pain. Using Google Trends tool, the frequency of worldwide YouTubeTM and Google Search on testicular pain was examined from 2010 to 2020. The keywords "testicular pain", "testicular ache" and "scrotal pain" were used on the YouTube platform and the first 100 YouTubeTM videos were analyzed for each one. The Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) for Audiovisual (A/V) Materials, the DISCERN score and Misinformation tool were used to assess video quality. According to YouTube™ Search the mean relative frequency search for "testicular pain" ranged from 10.5 to 30.0%. According to GoogleTM Search it ranged from 73.7 to 91.0%, Of all 300 videos, 117 were eligible for the analysis. The median number of views, thumbs-up and thumbs-down was respectively: 47060 (interquartile range [IQR] = 6297.0-144188.0), 289 (IQR = 40-912) and 19 (IQR = 4-53). Of all videos, 68.4% and 31.6% were produced respectively by Medical Doctors and Other. The median PEMAT Actionability and Understandability scores were 66.7% and 66.7%, respectively. The median DISCERN score ranged from 1 to 5, with an overall median score of 3, defined from question 16. The median misinformation score ranged from 2 to 5. In conclusion, an increased interest on testicular pain was recorded on both YouTubeTM and Google search during the last decade. However, according to the quality assessment tools used, YouTube™ users cannot get trustful and exhaustive information on testicular pain. Therefore, authors with/without medical background should improve the quality of information on YouTube™ videos.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-022-00536-w
  16. JSES Int. 2022 Jan;6(1): 44-48
    Readability assessment of patient educational materials for shoulder arthroplasty from top academic orthopedic institutions.
    John W Stelzer, Ian J Wellington, Maxwell T Trudeau, Michael R Mancini, Matthew R LeVasseur, James C Messina, Augustus D Mazzocca.
      Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that online patient educational materials are written at reading levels too advanced for the average patient. The average American reads at the eighth-grade reading level. To date, the readability of online educational material of academic centers for shoulder arthroplasty has not been analyzed.Methods: Online patient educational materials from the top 25 orthopedic institutions, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, were assessed utilizing the following readability assessments: Flesch-Kincaid (FK), Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning Fog Index, Coleman-Liau Index, Simple Measure of the Gobbledygook Index, Automated Readability Index, FORCAST, and the New Dale and Chall Readability. All of these scores, with the exception of the Flesch Reading Ease, provide an output indicating reading difficulty based on grade level. Correlations between academic institutional ranking and FK scores were evaluated using a Spearman regression. Lastly, additional factors including geographical location, private versus public institution, and use of concomitant multi-media modalities that may impact institutional readability scores (as determined by FK) were evaluated.
    Results: Only 16.0% of the top 25 institutions included online material at or below the eighth-grade reading level. Moreover, half of the online resources evaluated (those with FK score ≥9.3) were not at a suitable reading level for more than two-thirds of the general United States population (∼70%). Overall, the composite mean scores were 9.5 ± 2.1 for FK, 52.8 ± 9. for 4 Flesch Reading Ease, 12.2 ± 2.4 for Gunning Fog, 11.6 ± 1.8 for Coleman-Liau, 12.3 ± 1.7 for Simple Measure of the Gobbledygook Index, 9.6 ± 2.6 for Automated Readability, 11.1 ± 0.6 for FORCAST, and 5.9 ± 0.6 for New Dale and Chall. There was no correlation between institutional ranking and FK scores (ρ = -0.15; P = .946). Geographical location, private versus public institution, and use of concomitant multi-media modalities were not significantly associated with readability.
    Conclusion: Shoulder arthroplasty online patient educational material at top-ranked orthopedic institutions have poor readability and are likely not suitable for the majority of patients in the United States.
    Keywords:  Health literacy; Orthopedic online resources; Patient education; Readability; Shoulder arthroplasty
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseint.2021.08.004
  17. Int J Digit Libr. 2022 Feb 03. 1-11
    Mapping audiovisual content providers and resources in Greece.
    Afrodite Malliari, Ilias Nitsos, Sofia Zapounidou, Stavros Doropoulos.
      In Greece, there are many audiovisual resources available on the Internet that interest scientists and the general public. Although freely available, finding such resources often becomes a challenging task, because they are hosted on scattered websites and in different types/formats. These websites usually offer limited search options; at the same time, there is no aggregation service for audiovisual resources, nor a national registry for such content. To meet this need, the Open AudioVisual Archives project was launched and the first step in its development is to create a dataset with open access audiovisual material. The current research creates such a dataset by applying specific selection criteria in terms of copyright and content, form/use and process/technical characteristics. The results reported in this paper show that libraries, archives, museums, universities, mass media organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations are the main types of providers, but the vast majority of resources are open courses offered by universities under the "Creative Commons" license. Providers have significant differences in terms of their collection management capabilities. Most of them do not own any kind of publishing infrastructure and use commercial streaming services, such as YouTube. In terms of metadata policy, most of the providers use application profiles instead of international metadata schemas.
    Keywords:  Audiovisual providers; Audiovisual resources; Greece; Open access
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-022-00321-6
  18. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2022 Feb 11. 22(1): 117
    Reliability of online pregnancy-related information and associated feelings of worry among expectant women in Qatar.
    Ayman Al-Dahshan, Mohamad Chehab, Noora Al-Kubaisi, Nagah Selim.
      BACKGROUND: Although the internet can be a source of reassurance and clarification for expectant women, it could cause concerns or feelings of worry when reading about pregnancy-related information. This research study sought to assess feelings of worry and perceived reliability of online pregnancy-related information and the associated factors among expectant women attending antenatal clinics at primary healthcare centers in Qatar.METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was used. The participants were recruited through a systematic random sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants. Descriptive and analytic statistics were used as appropriate.
    RESULTS: A total of 327 expectant women completed the questionnaire. Most were aged between 26-34 years (74.1%), held a college/university degree (76.4%), and were multigravidas (73.1%). About one-third of the women (31.2%) reported feeling worried due to information they read online. They coped with these feelings by consulting their antenatal care provider at their next appointment (51.0%) or by talking with relatives and friends (47.0%). Most participants (79.2%) considered online pregnancy-related information to be reliable or highly reliable. Holding a college/university degree and being primigravidae were factors significantly associated with a high perception of reliability of online pregnancy information.
    CONCLUSION: Although online pregnancy information caused feelings of worry for some expectant women, most perceived such information to be reliable. Thus, antenatal care providers should guide expectant women on how to access high-quality web-based information.
    Keywords:  Health information; Online; Pregnancy; Qatar; Reliability; Web-based; Worry
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-04457-w
  19. Int Angiol. 2022 Feb 09.
    Readability of patient educational materials in venous thrombosis. Analysis of the 2021 ESVS guidelines and comparison with other medical societies information.
    Enrique M San Norberto, Elena García-Rivera, Álvaro Revilla, James H Taylor, Carlos Vaquero.
      BACKGROUND: In order for patients to comprehend health related information, it must be written at a level that can be readily understood by the intended population. During 2021 the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS) published a sub-section about information for patients into its Guidelines on the Management of Venous Thrombosis.METHODS: Nine readability measures were used to evaluate the patient educational material regarding venous thrombosis published by seven medical societies: ESVS, Society for Vascular Medicine (SVM), Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland (VS), Australia and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery (ANZSVS), Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery (CSVS) and American Heart Association (AHA).
    RESULTS: The mean reading grade level (RGL) for all the 58 recommendations was 10.61 (range 6.4-14.5) and the mean Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) was 56.10 (51.3-62.9), corresponding to a "fairly difficult" reading level. The mean RGL of the ESVS recommendations (11.45, 95% CI, 9.90-13.00) was significantly higher than the others. Post-hoc analysis determined a significant difference between the ESVS and the SVS (10.86, 95% CI, 9.84-11.91) recommendations (p=0.005). All the patient's education information published by the medical societies presented a RGL higher than recommended. The fifteen sub-sections of the information for patients included into the ESVS clinical guidelines presented a mean RGL above 9.5 points, revealing that no one (0%) was written at or below the recommended GRL. The mean FRE was 47.63 (28.2-61.6), corresponding to a "difficult" reading level.
    CONCLUSIONS: Venous thrombosis patient educational materials produced by leading medical societies have readability scores that are above the recommended levels. The innovative patient's information included into the ESVS venous thrombosis guidelines represents an important advance in the amelioration of the medical information for patients but their readability should be improved to adapt the understanding to the general-population.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.23736/S0392-9590.22.04741-1
  20. Ann Surg. 2021 Dec 30.
    The Weight of Surgical Knowledge: Navigating Information Overload.
    Jeff Choi, Christopher Stave, David A Spain.
      
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0000000000005365
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