Effect of Paper Versus Digital Reading in Health Professional Education: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Fontaine, Guillaume; Zagury-Orly, Ivry; Maheu-Cadotte, Marc-André; Lapierre, Alexandra; Thibodeau-Jarry, Nicolas; Denus, Simon de; Lordkipanidzé, Marie; Dupont, Patrice; Lavoie, Patrick

Objective. Despite the rise of digital education in health professional education (HPE), little is known about the comparative effectiveness of paper-based reading and its digital alternative on reading comprehension in HPE. We aimed to identify, appraise, and synthesize the evidence regarding the effect of reading media on reading comprehension in the context of HPE.Findings. From a pool of 2,208 references, we included 10 controlled studies enrolling 817 participants. Meta-analyses revealed a non-statistically significant advantage of paper over digital reading (standardized mean difference [SMD] -0.08; 95% confidence interval -0.28 to 0.12). Subgroup analyses revealed that students reading HPE-related texts, rather than non-HPE-related texts, had better reading comprehension when reading on paper (SMD = -0.36; 95% confidence interval -0.69 to -0.03). Heterogeneity was low in all analyses. The quality of evidence was low due to risks of bias across studies.Summary. Current evidence suggests little to no difference between paper and digital texts for reading comprehension in HPE. However, we observed effects favoring paper-based reading when considering texts relevant to students' professional discipline. Rigorous studies are needed to confirm this finding and to evaluate new means of boosting reading comprehension in HPE.