The importance of trust in a virtual community of practice in menopause: A cross-sectional study of a menopause-focused Telegram group (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Background: Virtual communities of practice are an important avenue for knowledge sharing within medical specialties. This form of continuing education can directly impact patient care and treatment outcomes. The field of menopause has been largely neglected in medical education, and therefore many health care practitioners feel ill-equipped to address patient needs. This is complicated by the fact that many patients are opposed to using hormone replacement therapy, and it is not relevant for a significant portion of women. OBJECTIVE Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate which factors are essential to establish trust of the participants in this virtual community of practice so that it can serve as an effective form of continuing education in order to establish guidelines for communities in other fields of medicine. METHODS Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between December 5th, 2022, and June 1st, 2023, of participants in a virtual community of practice focused on menopause in Israel. Participants responded to questions regarding their use of the community and its utility. Ordinal regression analysis was used to identify the strength of relationships between the variables. RESULTS Results: Of the 306 professionals in the group, 91 participated (29.7%). The participants included 77 physicians (84.6%). The majority of participants checked the group once a week or less (50/91, 54.9%). Participants were more likely to ask questions than answer with 64/90 (71.1%) asking questions and 44/91 (48.4%) answering. The majority of participants who answered more than once a month were OB/GYNs (8/11, 72.7%) and were more likely to have completed residency more than 15 years ago. The majority of participants felt the group increased their knowledge base (46/91, 50.5%), was relevant (73/91, 80.2%), and included interesting articles (61/91, 67.0%). The overwhelming majority felt that they could trust the group (72/89, 81%). Women are more trusting of men, and junior HCPs are more trusting. Those HCPs who found the group increased their knowledge base, provided relevant information and interesting articles were most likely to report high trust. Ordinal regression analysis showed that finding the groups’ posts informative was related to high trust, whereas the frequency with which participants checked the group was not related. CONCLUSIONS Conclusion: These findings suggest that quality of information provided in VCoPs are an important predictor of the level of trust of the participants. The high levels of trust in this community make it a powerful tool for continuing education in a field where knowledge gaps and controversies exist.