[Reading habits of Norwegian physicians]

Norwegian doctors spend on average 3.4 hours per week reading medical literature. 2/3 of this time is spent on medical journals. These are the main findings in a survey of self-reported reading time among 760 Norwegian doctors. Hospital doctors read more than doctors working outside hospital (3.9 vs. 2.7 hours per week), and internists spend more time reading than surgeons and general practitioners do. All categories of doctors report spending approximately one hour per week reading other material than journals and articles, and the differences between groups as regards reading time are accounted for by differences in the time spent on medical journals. Nine out of ten doctors read Tidsskrift for Den norske laegeforening (the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association) regularly, and 2/3 read Nordisk Medicine (the Nordic Medical Journal). Every fifth doctor reads at least one out of four specified international journals (British Medical Journal, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine or JAMA). Only one out of fifteen Norwegian doctors reads Läkartidningen (the Swedish Medical Journal) and Ugeskrift for Laeger (the Danish Medical Journal) on a regular basis.