TY - JOUR
T1 - Internet-specific epistemic beliefs in medicine and intention to use evidence-based online medical databases among health care professionals
T2 - Cross-sectional survey
AU - Chiu, Yen Lin
AU - Lee, Yu Chen
AU - Tsai, Chin Chung
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was, in part, financially supported by the Institute for Research Excellence in Learning Sciences of National Taiwan Normal University from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. In addition, the authors thank the research fund offered by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, under grant numbers MOST 107-2511-H-002-010-MY3 and MOST 108-2511-H-003-038-MY3, and the fund provided by China Medical University, Taichung, under grant number CMU DMR-104-004. We also thank all those who were involved in this research, including the health care professionals who replied to the questionnaires and the research assistants who contributed to collecting the questionnaires. Finally, we deeply appreciate the reviewers who provided constructive and relevant comments on this study during the reviewing process.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Journal of Medical Internet Research. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Background: 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. Objective: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.
AB - Background: 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. Objective: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.
KW - Evidence-based medicine (EBM)
KW - Health care professionals
KW - Internet-specific epistemic beliefs
KW - Medical informatics
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U2 - 10.2196/20030
DO - 10.2196/20030
M3 - Article
C2 - 33734092
AN - SCOPUS:85103143429
SN - 1439-4456
VL - 23
JO - Journal of Medical Internet Research
JF - Journal of Medical Internet Research
IS - 3
M1 - e20030
ER -