Background The ability to critically appraise health information-often referred to as critical health literacy-is recognized as a crucial component of health literacy. Yet to date, it is not clear what specific abilities are needed to adequately accomplish this task, thereby hindering both its assessment and the development and evaluation of related interventions. By systematically building on past research, this study aimed to operationally define the concept of health information appraisal competence. Methods We systematically searched five scholarly databases to identify the conceptualizations and operational definitions of information appraisal in different disciplines. The resulting operationalization was subsequently validated through an online consultation exercise among 85 Swiss stakeholders. Results Ninety-four publications were included in the review to the point of saturation. We extracted 646 skills, attitudes, and knowledge for health information appraisal. We then collated overlapping or duplicate statements, which produced a list of 43 unique statements belonging to six emergent themes or core competences: (1) basic competence, (2) predisposition, (3) identification competence, (4) critical evaluation competence, (5) selection competence, and (6) application competence. The consultation exercise enriched the operationalization of some of the core competences and confirmed the importance of all competences. Most skills, attitudes, and knowledge, however, were assigned low feasibility by the stakeholders. Conclusions This study was the first attempt to systematically operationalize health information appraisal competence. From a theoretical perspective, it sheds light on an understudied, health
A national sample of physician assistants (PAs) responded to a survey about their perceptions of specialty certification. Fewer than one-third planned to certify. Of three factors, advantage of specialization was most related to awareness, plans to certify, and demographics. Respondents were unsure whether certification would increase PA salaries. Many felt specialty certification will be the undoing of the profession.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.