58 F . Forster et al .: Radioprotection 2024 , 59 ( 1 ), 55 – 64 Fig . 1 . Flowchart for the selection of articles .
the relation between their health issues and EMF . Furthermore , also the German physicians stated that their most frequent recommendation given to their patients was exposure reduction ( Berg-Beckhoff et al ., 2009 ). Moreover , 35 % of the Dutch GPs reported that they ever had a consultation concerning EMF . In about one third of the cases , the patients blamed their health issues on EMF ( Slottje et al ., 2017 ).
3.3.4 . Information needs
Austrian GPs mentioned magazines ( 54 %) and newspapers ( 53 %) as the most frequently used sources of information regarding EMF . While scientific sources were used by a quarter of the GPs , official bodies only played a minor role ( 4 %) regarding information gathering ( Leitgeb et al ., 2005 ).
Similarly , in the French study , GPs were reported to use mass media more often than medical literature when searching for information concerning EMF ( Lambrozo et al ., 2013 ).
Among the German GPs , 33.8 % of the participants reported that they had used any source of information about EMF within the last year . Medical journals ( 84.7 %) were the most frequently stated source of information , followed by newspapers ( 62.8 %). The internet was used by 49.6 % of GPs for information purposes . Being asked about their own level of information about EMF , GPs described their level of information as very good , good or rather good in 32.0 % ( long questionnaire ) and 47.5 % ( short questionnaire ) of the cases ( Berg-Beckhoff et al ., 2009 ). This proportion was lower among the Swiss physicians , with only 26 % assessing their information level as good ( Huss und Röösli , 2006 ).