[How long do doctors need to read a paper in specialist journals presenting accredited continuing medical education...

In Germany, 45 min of continuing medical education (CME) are awarded 1 credit point. It was the aim of this study to assess the time amount needed to read a CME article in a wide variety of specialist journals.

All CME articles in 18 specialist journals presented in 2004 were analyzed, which had all used the same evaluation form provided by the Chamber of Physicians North Rhine (65,393 evaluation forms of 12,587 participants).

There was only a weak linear relationship between the time needed to read an article and the number of characters as a measure of length of the text. Duration of reading was more closely related to the amount of new data presented and was inversely related to duration of professional activity and clinical experience, but, on the other hand, age was positively related to very long reading times. Reading times also increased with the number of articles read, up to the fourth article. Day of the week and hour of the day revealed no influence on reading time.

The time amount needed to read a CME article is mainly determined by factors which are relevant in terms of clinical experience, while the length of the article is only of minor importance. Thus, the number of credit points awarded for reading CME articles should be based on direct assessment of reading time.