Publicación:

Factors associated with the use of non-own passwords in medical students; Factores asociados al uso de claves no propias en estudiantes de medicina

Resumen

Introduction: Student access to some scientific journals or databases is limited due to memberships; and for this reason, some students choose to obtain foreign passwords. Objective: To determine the factors associated with the use of non-own passwords in Latin American medical students. Methods: Cross-sectional study of secondary data carried out in 40 medical schools in Latin America. Medical students who responded to the main variable (access to passwords other than their own) were included, which was crossed with frequent access to databases, scientific journals; as well as the services provided by their institution and the research background. Results: Of 10 885 students, 23% had access to passwords that were not their own. A higher frequency of use of non-proprietary passwords was found among those who always or almost always used Google Scholar (p= 0.001), PubMed (p= 0.004), Scopus (p= 0.002), Up To Date (p= 0.002); It was also associated with 3 types of scientific training (all values p< 0.009), with the performance of 4 types of curricular research (all values p< 0.002) and 5 extracurricular (all values p< 0.003). Conclusions: The factors associated with the use of non-proprietary passwords, frequent access to 11 databases or search engines, having received 3 types of scientific training, carrying out 4 types of curricular and 5 extracurricular research. © 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.