Differences in Quality Scores and Potential Causes
The web group obtained a significantly lower quality score with 32.8% of criteria fulfilled in comparison to 85.3% in the EVInews group. Several explanations for this result are possible. The statistically significant difference in quality scores may be explained by a lack of transparency information of many web-based sources, which ultimately resulted in lower scores. Examples of missing transparency information include publication dates, literature references, or authorship information. An analysis of the categories transparency and quality of evidence confirmed the persisting difference in scores in favor of the EVInews group.Furthermore, a subgroup analysis was conducted because the difference in quality could be caused by participants who mostly chose the escape answer option “I don’t know.” A significant difference in quality scores remained when only data from participants, who verified all 6 health-related statements, were included.The differences in quality scores between the participants could also be explained by personal factors such as different levels of work experience, knowledge, and the skills needed to quickly find suitable external evidence on the internet. However, significant differences in sociodemographic data between both groups were not existent. According to our correlational analysis, there was a positive association between the participant’s estimated annual literature searches and quality scores in both study groups. A negative correlation between the participant’s age as well as professional experience in years and quality scores was only observed within the EVInews group. This may indicate that with increasing practical literature search experience, the ability to find appropriate evidence could increase but with increasing age and professional experience decrease. The factors age and professional experience however only seemed to be associated with the quality scores of the EVInews group. It should be taken into consideration that EbPharm has been established in recent years, and therefore pharmacists who were trained over 30 years ago may not be familiar with this concept. Abu Farha et al [