Accessing Medical Information on Smart-Phone: Usage and Perception among Post Graduate Students of A Medical College, Central Karnataka - A Cross Sectional Study

摘要

Introduction: There is scant reliable evidence on the usage of smart phone by postgraduate stu-dents/residents in India. The study conducted to assess the usage of smart phone to access medical in-formation among postgraduate stu-dents of a medical college and to explore the perceptions about ac-cessing medical information on smart phone among them. Methodology: A cross sectional study was done among postgradu-ate students of a medical college in central Karnataka during December 2018 to January 2019. Every post-graduate student of the college available at the campus was ap-proached for the study. Results: Smart-phone use and in-ternet facility in it was almost uni-versal (99.2%). Mean years of smart-phone usage among postgraduates was 7.4 2.5 years and they were using internet around 3.4 1.5 hours a day. Medical information was accessed by 97.4% of postgrad-uates over smart-phone and pub-med was the most common site ac-cessed. Information on drug dosag-es and search for seminar presenta-tions were the most searched rea-sons. Usefulness of medical infor-mation available on internet was graded at 3.62 0.85 on a scale of 0-5. Conclusions: Online information aid clinical/academic activity of the subjects significantly. This makes it necessary to train them about the search methodologies and infor-mation about validity and reliability of the information provided in the online resources.