Table 1. Characteristics of included studies and the conferences they evaluated, published between January 1, 2008 to June 3, 2022
Conference Evaluation Studies (n=83)  
Origin of article, n (%)   
              North America 60 (72.3)
              Europe 10 (12.0)
              Australia/New Zealand 4 (4.8)
              East Asia 4 (4.8)
              Africa 1 (1.2)
              Central and South America 2 (2.4)
              Not reported/unclear 2 (2.4)
Study Type, n (%)  
              Survey/Interview 69 (83.1)
              Observational studies 4 (4.8)
              Both survey and observational 6 (7.2)
              Systematic/Scoping review 3 (3.6)
              Evaluation tool validation 1 (1.2)
Data Collection Methods, n (%)  
              Quantitative  29 (34.9)
              Qualitative  3 (3.6)
              Mixed methods  45 (54.2)
              NR/Unclear  3 (3.6)
              NA*  3 (3.6)
Conference Specifics, n (%)  
              Conference length reported 51 (61.4)
              Conference lengths unclear 5 (6.0)
              Number of attendees reported 45 (54.2)
              Number of attendees unclear 7 (4.8)
Participant recruitment, n (%)  
              At conference 15 (18.1)
              Electronically 30 (36.1)
              Both 8 (9.6)
               Unclear/NR/NA 30 (36.1)
Survey/Interview measurement times§  
              Before conference 21 (25.3)
              At start of conference 1 (1.2)
              During conference 8 (9.6)
              End of conference 23 (27.7)
              Post-conference 45 (54.2)
               NR/NA 9 (10.8)
Conference evaluation method, n (%)  
              Online  34 (41.0)
              In person/at conference  12 (14.5)
              Both  11 (13.3)
              NR/Unclear  17 (20.5)

Abbreviations: Health care providers (HCP); Not applicable (NA); Not reported (NR) *Systematic or scoping reviews †Mean length was 2.6 days, ranged from 1 to 6 days ‡Number of attendees ranged from 43 to 18 000 ⁋In-person recruitment occurred at conferences; electronic recruitment methods included email, as part of online registration, or over social media. §30 studies evaluated conferences at multiple time points (only 3 of these provided the evaluation tool, and only 2 gathered related data before/after, so further analysis was not conducted). Some studies conducted measurements at multiple time points. Therefore, n (%) will be greater than the total number of included studies. ‖9 studies did not use evaluation tools.

Int J Med Educ. 2024; 15:15-33; doi: 10.5116/ijme.65cc.8c88