Table 2.

Prevalence of use of information sources to inform clinical decision-making by naturopathic practitioners (NP) (n = 453), NP perceptions of importance to patient that clinical decisions are informed by the information source, and NP trust of knowledge acquired from the information source

Information source	Use	Perceived importance to patient that clinical decisions are informed by information sourcea,b	Level of practitioner trust of knowledge acquired from information sourcea,c
	N (%)	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Information published in scientific journals by researchers	364 (80.4)	2.45 (0.91)	2.46 (0.58)
Information gathered from conferences or other professional events	354 (78.2)	2.85 (1.03)	2.45 (0.63)
Information published in modern naturopathic clinical textbooks (published in the last 10 years)	338 (74.6)	2.78 (1.01)	2.26 (0.64)
Information from laboratory tests, pathology or radiology tests	335 (74.0)	2.81 (1.88)	1.99 (0.57)
Information published in professional journals for clinicians	333 (73.5)	2.64 (0.91)	2.46 (0.58)
Information provided by the patient	309 (68.2)	1.49 (0.69)	2.31 (0.72)
Information published in general clinical textbooks	296 (65.3)	2.76 (0.98)	2.33 (0.65)
Information from clinical guidelines	248 (54.8)	2.57 (0.99)	2.44 (0.68)
Information provided by product companies	230 (50.8)	3.39 (1.03)	2.88 (0.68)
Information published in traditional naturopathic textbooks (published more than 50 years ago)	193 (42.6)	3.12 (1.03)	2.62 (0.71)

^aPercentages calculated based on respondents who indicated using the knowledge or information source

^bImportance scale: 1 = Extremely Important, 5 = Not at all important

^cTrust scale: 1 = Completely, 5 = Not at all