Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Seeking psychological treatment for perinatal anxiety: Attitudes and preferences among pregnant, postpartum, and non-perinatal women

Objective: Perinatal anxiety (PA) impacts 15 to 24.5% of women though treatment-seeking rates are low, despite various available and effective treatment options. The present study aimed to understand pregnant, postpartum, and non-perinatal women’s attitudes toward treatment-seeking and information needs regarding PA. Methods: Non-perinatal, pregnant, and postpartum women ages 18-40 in Central Canada completed an online survey (N = 200). Crosstabulation analyses illustrated differences in treatment preferences across groups. A one-way between-subjects ANOVA informed differences in attitudes toward psychological treatment-seeking across groups. Results: Across groups, women had positive attitudes toward psychological treatment seeking. Women endorsed a preference for PA support from peers and psychoeducation from their family doctor. Most women desired brief 1-page fact sheets on psychological and pharmacological treatment options during early pregnancy or pregnancy planning. Conclusion: Findings inform a need for evidence-based eHealth and in-person treatments for PA. Women have positive attitudes toward seeking such services and voiced a preference for information regarding treatment options to be delivered early in pregnancy. Practice Implications: Findings demonstrate a need for a unified national psychoeducation and treatment information resource to be developed and disseminated online. Such resources should be available early in pregnancy or pregnancy planning to prevent developing or worsening PA

Examining Anxiety Treatment Information Needs: Web-Based Survey Study

BackgroundSeveral treatments for anxiety are available, which can make treatment decisions difficult. Resources are often produced with limited knowledge of what information is of interest to consumers. This is a problem because there is limited understanding of what people want to know when considering help for anxiety. ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the information needs and preferences concerning treatment options for anxiety by assessing the following: what information people consider to be important when they are considering treatment options for anxiety, what information people have received on psychological and medication treatment in the past, how they received this information in the past, and whether there are any differences in information needs between specific samples and demographic groups. MethodsUsing a web-based survey, we recruited participants from a peer-support association website (n=288) and clinic samples (psychology, n=113; psychiatry, n=64). ResultsParticipants in all samples wanted information on a broad range of topics pertaining to anxiety treatment. However, they reported that they did not receive the desired amount of information. Participants in the clinic samples rated the importance of information topics higher than did those in the self-help sample. When considering the anxiety treatment information received in the past, most respondents indicated receiving information from informational websites, family doctors, and mental health practitioners. In terms of what respondents want to learn about, high ratings of importance were given to topics concerning treatment effectiveness, how it works, advantages and disadvantages, what happens when it stops, and common side effects. ConclusionsIt is challenging for individuals to obtain anxiety-related information on the range of topics they desire through currently available information sources. It is also difficult to provide comprehensive information during typical clinical visits. Providing evidence-based information on the web and in a brochure format may help consumers make informed choices and support the advice provided by health professionals