Chiu Yen-Lin, Lee Yu-Chen, Tsai Chin-Chung
Department and Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Bioethics, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
J Med Internet Res. 2021 Mar 18;23(3):e20030. doi: 10.2196/20030.
Evidence-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.
The 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.
Health 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.
A 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.
Advancing 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.
循证医学被视为确保医疗质量的前提条件。医疗保健专业人员对基于网络的医学信息的采用率不断上升，且对获取循证在线资源的其他途径缺乏认识，这表明有必要对他们使用循证在线医学数据库的信息搜索行为进行调查。
本研究的主要目的是：（1）修改并验证医学领域特定于互联网的认知信念（ISEBM）问卷；（2）探讨医疗保健专业人员的人口统计学特征、ISEBM与使用循证在线医学数据库进行临床实践的意愿之间的关联。
使用ISEBM问卷对一所大学附属医院的医疗保健专业人员进行调查。采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型分析ISEBM的信效度。此外，分析结构模型以检验医疗专业人员的人口统计学特征、ISEBM与使用循证在线医学数据库进行临床实践的意愿之间可能存在的联系。
共调查了273名有临床工作经验的医疗保健专业人员。测量模型分析结果表明，所有项目的载荷均显著，范围为0.71至0.92，组合信度值令人满意，范围为0.87至0.94，平均方差解释值范围为0.70至0.84。结构关系分析结果显示，基于互联网的医学知识来源（路径系数-0.26，P = 0.01）和医学领域基于互联网认知的正当性（路径系数0.21，P = 0.001）与使用循证在线医学数据库的意愿相关。然而，基于互联网的医学知识的确定性和简单性则不然。此外，性别（路径系数0.12，P = 0.04）和学术学位（路径系数0.15，P = 0.004）与使用循证在线医学数据库进行临床实践的意愿相关。
提升医疗保健专业人员在来源和正当性方面的ISEBM可能会鼓励他们通过循证医学数据库检索有效的医学信息。此外，为特定的医疗保健专业人员（即女性、无硕士学位者）提供支持可能会促进他们使用特定数据库进行临床实践的意愿。
