Effect of age on U.S. gynecologic patients' use of social media for women's health information.

OBJECTIVE: To compare use, timing, and perceived benefit of social media for women's health information between different aged gynecologic patients. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional survey of patients presenting to a U.S. academic gynecology clinic over three months in spring 2021. We compared social media use for women's health information among patients of different age groups. RESULTS: Most respondents use social media to learn about women's health (57.0 %), believe women's health information should be available on social media (92.4 %), and find it helpful in making health decisions (58.5 %), without significant differences by age group. With each increasing decade of age, patients increasingly reported actively searching for women's health information rather than passively finding it on a feed (p = 0.024 for overall comparison) and using social media for health information specifically around doctor's visits (p = 0.023 for overall comparison), and less commonly reported trusting social media influencers (p = 0.030 for overall comparison). CONCLUSION: Reproductive and non-reproductive aged patients all highly utilize social media for women's health information, however there are differences in usage patterns by age. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Understanding social media use patterns can facilitate direction to and creation of accessible, medically-accurate and patient-friendly content.

Effects of rotating at a Catholic hospital on medical student contraceptive objective structured clinical exam scores.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of rotating at a Catholic vs non-religious institution for the inpatient portion of the third-year medical school obstetrics and gynecology clerkship on medical students' contraceptive competency. STUDY DESIGN: We assigned all medical students completing an obstetrics and gynecology clerkship during the 2017-2019 academic years to a Catholic or non-religious hospital for their inpatient teaching site, where they gain much of their contraceptive counseling experience. All students attended the same didactic sessions on contraception. We compared Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) scores and clerkship grades between the two clinical sites for all medical students. We set significance at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Of 281 medical students, the 127 (45.2%) who had rotated at a Catholic hospital performed lower on the data-gathering component of the contraceptive OSCE compared with students at the non-religious hospitals (Catholic: 62.4 ± 16.5 vs non-religious: 70.2 ± 15.9, p < 0.01) and had lower total contraceptive OSCE scores (Catholic: 69.4 ± 9.3 vs non-religious: 72.0 ± 8.5, p < 0.01). Clinical reasoning and communication scores for the contraceptive OSCE, data-gathering and total scores for other OSCE scenarios, overall OSCE and clerkship grades were not different. CONCLUSION: Rotation at a Catholic hospital, with fewer opportunities for medical students to experience contraceptive counseling, was associated with poorer data-gathering skills for gynecologic and sexual history. While contraceptive knowledge can be imparted didactically, hands-on history-taking and counseling experiences are needed to build competency in contraceptive care. IMPLICATIONS: There is a disparity in medical student family planning training at a Catholic hospital compared with non-religious hospitals. Contraceptive knowledge can be attained through didactic sessions, however additional hands-on practice is needed in gynecologic and sexual history taking if clinical opportunities are limited.