Internet-Specific Epistemic Beliefs in Medicine and Intention to Use Evidence-Based Online Medical Databases Among Health Care Professionals: Cross-sectional Survey.

Yen-Lin Chiu,Yu-Chen Lee,Chin-Chung Tsai

doi:10.2196/20030

Abstract

BackgroundEvidence-based medicine has been regarded as a prerequisite for ensuring health care quality. The increase in health care professionals’ adoption of web-based medical information and the lack of awareness of alternative access to evidence-based online resources suggest the need for an investigation of their information-searching behaviors of using evidence-based online medical databases.ObjectiveThe main purposes of this study were to (1) modify and validate the internet-specific epistemic beliefs in medicine (ISEBM) questionnaire and (2) explore the associations between health care professionals’ demographics, ISEBM, and intention to use evidence-based online medical databases for clinical practice.MethodsHealth care professionals in a university-affiliated teaching hospital were surveyed using the ISEBM questionnaire. The partial least squares-structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze the reliability and validity of ISEBM. Furthermore, the structural model was analyzed to examine the possible linkages between health professionals’ demographics, ISEBM, and intention to utilize the evidence-based online medical databases for clinical practice.ResultsA total of 273 health care professionals with clinical working experience were surveyed. The results of the measurement model analysis indicated that all items had significant loadings ranging from 0.71 to 0.92 with satisfactory composite reliability values ranging from 0.87 to 0.94 and average variance explained values ranging from 0.70 to 0.84. The results of the structural relationship analysis revealed that the source of internet-based medical knowledge (path coefficient –0.26, P=.01) and justification of internet-based knowing in medicine (path coefficient 0.21, P=.001) were correlated with the intention to use evidence-based online medical databases. However, certainty and simplicity of internet-based medical knowledge were not. In addition, gender (path coefficient 0.12, P=.04) and academic degree (path coefficient 0.15, P=.004) were associated with intention to use evidence-based online medical databases for clinical practice.ConclusionsAdvancing health care professionals’ ISEBM regarding source and justification may encourage them to retrieve valid medical information through evidence-based medical databases. Moreover, providing support for specific health care professionals (ie, females, without a master’s degree) may promote their intention to use certain databases for clinical practice.

Highlights

Evidence-Based MedicineEvidence-based medicine, defined as an integration of the best available external evidence, individual clinical expertise, and patient preferences in making optimal decisions for patient care, remains a major concern for health care professionals, public health practitioners, and medical educators [1,2,3]
After deleting 4 cases with major missing values, the data from a sample of 273 health care professionals with clinical work experience of more than 6 months in one university-affiliated teaching hospital was employed in the following calculation
Due to the widespread utilization of the internet for searching for and locating medical knowledge in daily clinical practice [8,20], it is important to understand health care professionals’ internet-specific epistemic beliefs, which play an influential role in their web-based information-searching behavior [24,26]

Summary

Introduction

Evidence-Based MedicineEvidence-based medicine, defined as an integration of the best available external evidence, individual clinical expertise, and patient preferences in making optimal decisions for patient care, remains a major concern for health care professionals, public health practitioners, and medical educators [1,2,3]. Evidence-based online medical databases may support convenient access for health care professionals to search for and retrieve evidence-based medical information in clinical contexts [3,11,12]. Using evidence-based online medical databases to improve patient care is regarded as a legitimate clinical role of health care professionals [11]. Information literacy, that is, awareness and evaluation of the evidence sources, is regarded as a necessary competency of health professionals in evidence-based practice [13]. The increase in health care professionals’ adoption of web-based medical information and the lack of awareness of alternative access to evidence-based online resources suggest the need for an investigation of their information-searching behaviors of using evidence-based online medical databases

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion