Exploring the use and usability of the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) 'Evidence in your inbox' e-mail alert service

Objective: To evaluate the use and useability of the Physiotherapy Evidence Database's 'Evidence in your inbox' e-mail alert service.

Materials and methods: An explanatory sequential design consisting of a usage evaluation, cross-sectional survey, and semi-structured interviews. Usage was evaluated using routinely collected data from October 2015 to March 2021: number of subscribers, number of articles, open rates, and click-through rates. Subscribers were subdivided by level of engagement. All subscribers were invited to participate in a 17-question online survey. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a subgroup of participants who completed the survey.

Results: The service sent a minimum of 121 or a maximum of 431 articles, on average, each month across 15 feeds to 16,556 subscribers. Overtime, the rate of opening and clicking on links within e-mails decreased. Low engagers (62%) subscribed to 3.5 (95% CI 3.7-3.4) more feeds than high engagers (23%) and 2.8 (95% CI 3.0-2.6) more than moderate engagers (15%). Seventy-one subscribers completed the survey, 89% of whom were satisfied with the service and who thought it was an efficient way to be updated on evidence (98%). Six subscribers participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of interviews identified five facilitators and four barriers to using the service, with three potential solutions to aid useability.

Discussion and conclusion: The format and structure of the service may facilitate its use and usability. Addressing barriers of having too few or too many articles, and lack of time to read full articles may enhance the usability of 'Evidence in your inbox'.