Mega Subramaniam, Assistant Professor Beth St. Jean, Assistant Professor

HackHealth: Improving the Health Literacy, Health-Related Self-Efficacy,

and Long-Term Health Outlook of Disadvantaged Youth through the

Facilitation of Scientific Inquiry and Information Literacy Skills

Mega Subramaniam, Assistant ProfessorBeth St. Jean, Assistant Professor

Natalie Greene Taylor, Doctoral StudentRebecca Follman, Doctoral Student

College of Information StudiesUniversity of Maryland, College Park

Dana Casciotti, Program Analyst, Office of Health Information Programs Development, NLM

Topic: Working with school librarians to design and implement an 8-week afterschool program to teach tweens how to look for, evaluate, share, and make use of health-related information

Population: Disadvantaged tweens (10-14) attending selected Title I middle schools

Funding: National Library of Medicine (NLM)

Time Frame: July 2013 – June 2014

Project Overview

Boost disadvantaged tweens’:◦Interest in the health sciences◦Health literacy◦Health-related self-efficacy◦Understanding of the crucial link

between daily health behaviors and the ability to maintain health and prevent disease

◦Long-term health outcomes

Goals

How do tweens go about looking for and evaluating health-related information online?

How can we best teach tweens to look for and evaluate health-related information online?

What role can afterschool programs involving school libraries play in improving tweens’ health literacy and their interest in the health sciences?

To what extent can we improve tweens’ health-related self-efficacy by increasing their health literacy?

To what extent can improved health literacy and improved health-related self-efficacy lead to better health-related decisions and positive health behavior changes in tweens?

Research Questions

8-Week after-school program prepared and conducted in collaboration with school librarians

Program will include activities designed to teach disadvantaged youth how to:◦ Look for and evaluate health-related information online◦ Serve as an information intermediary for their family◦ Use information to make decisions that will improve their

(and their family members’) health Design of overall program and activities will be

guided by Eisenberg and Berkowitz’s Big6 information problem-solving model

Program will be iteratively revised as it is run consecutively at 3 Title I middle schools

Methods: Overview

Big6 Information Problem-Solving Model (Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 1990)

Task Definition

Information Seeking Strategies

Location and Access

Use of Information

Synthesis

Evaluation

Pre-/Post-Survey Pre-/Post-Card Sorting Exercises Automated logging of browser interactions Interactive observation Student search logs Student health behavior logs Student journals Follow-up interviews with students Focus groups with participating students

and their parents

Methods Data Collection

Conference presentations◦ 2013 ASIS&T SIG-USE Symposium◦ 2014 ALISE Annual Conference◦ AASL @ ALA 2014 Annual Conference◦ iConference 2014◦ Interaction Design and Children (IDC) 2014

Journal articles Final program materials will be made

available through:◦ Our project Website (http://hackhealth.umd.edu/) ◦ The American Association of School Librarians

Lesson Plan Database (http://aasl.jesandco.org/)

Deliverables

http://hackhealth.umd.edu/


http://aasl.jesandco.org/

http://aasl.jesandco.org/

Our iPAC Project Space: http://ipac.umd.edu/our-work/improving-health-literacy-and-self-efficacy-disadvantaged-youth

Our Project Website (currently under construction): http://hackhealth.umd.edu/

Twitter: @kidshackhealth

Follow us…

http://ipac.umd.edu/our-work/improving-health-literacy-and-self-efficacy-disadvantaged-youth





Poor Fair Good Very good Excellent0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

41.8%33.0%

16.3%8.9% 7.9%

26.5%30.1%

26.5%

18.9% 16.5%

28.9% 34.3%

51.2%

59.0%57.0%

2.8% 2.7% 5.9%13.2% 18.6%

ProficientIntermediateBasicBelow Basic

Overall HealthSOURCE: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Public-Use Data File

Health Literacy by Overall Health

SOURCE: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Public-Use Data File

16-18 19-24 25-39 40-49 50-64 65+0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

10.9% 10.2% 10.2% 11.2% 13.3%29.0%

23.1% 20.7% 18.1% 20.6% 21.4%

29.5%

58.4% 57.7% 55.2%56.3% 53.1%

38.2%

7.5% 11.4% 16.5% 11.9% 12.1%3.3%


Age

Health Literacy by Age Group


Still i

n high

scho

ol

Less t

han/s

ome h

igh sc

hool

GED/hi

gh sc

hool

equiv

alency

High sc

hool

gradu

ate

Vocat

ional/

trade

/busin

ess sc

hool

Some c

olleg

e

Associ

ate^s/2

-year

degre

e

Colle

ge gr

adua

te

Gradua

te stu

dies/d

egree

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

12.8%

49.4%

13.9% 14.9% 11.5% 5.3% 4.0% 2.8% 2.5%

23.7%

26.7%

29.8% 28.8%24.6%

19.4% 15.0% 10.3% 8.1%

56.3%

22.7%

53.6% 52.6%57.2%

67.2%66.3%

59.4%56.7%

7.2% 1.2% 2.8% 3.7% 6.7% 8.1%14.6%

27.4% 32.7%


Educational Attainment

Health Literacy by Educational Attainment


Less than/some high school

GED/high school equivalency

High school graduate Vocational/trade/business

school

Some college Associate^s/2-year degree

College graduate Graduate studies/degree

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

26.8%

8.9% 7.6% 3.5% 2.6% 3.1% 5.1% 2.0%

27.1%

21.0% 19.8%15.7% 12.0% 12.8% 12.4%

9.5%

41.0%

59.2% 61.5%69.4%

69.3% 67.8% 58.9%59.3%

5.2% 11.0% 11.1% 11.4% 16.0% 16.3% 23.6% 29.2%


Mother's Educational Attainment

Health Literacy by Mother’s Educational Attainment


Less than/some high school

GED/high school equivalency

High school graduate Vocational/trade/business

school

Some college Associate^s/2-year degree

College graduate Graduate studies/degree

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

23.4%10.8% 8.7% 5.7% 5.2% 4.7% 4.4% 3.6%

27.5%

17.7% 19.9%16.0% 15.0% 15.6% 12.0% 9.8%

44.0%

53.8% 59.0%64.1% 62.4% 65.8%

61.5%57.1%

5.1%17.7% 12.5% 14.2% 17.4% 14.0%

22.1%29.6%


Father's Educational Attainment

Health Literacy by Father’s Educational Attainment

Health Literacy by Household Income

< $10,000 $10,000-$14,999

$15,000-$19,999

$20,000-$29,999

$30,000-$39,999

$40,000-$59,999

$60,000-$99,999

$100,000+0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

37.7% 32.3%25.7% 20.1% 15.8%

8.6% 2.9% 2.8%

26.2% 30.9%30.8%

27.3%24.2%

21.3%

12.7% 9.8%

32.7% 34.8%40.2%

47.6%52.4%

60.9%

66.2%61.9%

3.4% 2.0% 3.3% 5.0% 7.6% 9.2%18.2%

25.6%


Approximate Household IncomeSOURCE: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Public-Use Data File

Health Literacy by Income Adequacy

Below poverty threshold At or above poverty threshold0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

35.4%

9.5%

27.1%

19.4%

34.2%

57.7%

3.3%13.3%


Income AdequacySOURCE: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Public-Use Data File

Yes No0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

18.8% 13.4%

29.2%21.1%

48.3%

53.2%

3.7% 12.3%


Have you ever received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Aid to Families with

Dependent Children (AFDC), public assistance or public welfarepayments?


Health Literacy by Public Assistance

White Black Hispanic Other (incl multi-racial)0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

8.6%23.8%

41.2%

13.5%

18.7%

33.5%

24.5%

21.0%

58.4%

41.2% 30.7%

53.6%

14.2%1.5% 3.7%

11.9%


Race/EthnicitySOURCE: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Public-Use Data File

Health Literacy by Race/Ethnicity

Health Literacy by Computer Use

Yes No0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

6.9%

40.6%18.1%

28.9%61.6%

28.7%13.4%

1.8%


Ever Use a Computer?SOURCE: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Public-Use Data File

Health Literacy by Internet Use

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

20.7%6.3% 5.6% 5.7% 3.9%

41.0%

30.7%

20.1% 20.0% 16.4% 13.3%

28.7%

45.5%

64.4% 66.1%62.3%

64.3%

28.5%

3.2% 9.1% 8.4%15.6% 18.5%

1.8%


Use the Internet to Find InformationSOURCE: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Public-Use Data File

Health Literacy by Internet Use for Health Information

None A little Some A lot0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

27.3%

5.0% 4.7% 5.6%

28.5%

15.9% 14.8% 15.9%

40.4%

63.4% 63.2% 62.4%

3.8%15.6% 17.3% 16.0%


Receive Health Issue Information from the InternetSOURCE: 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Public-Use Data File

Documents

Mega Subramaniam, Assistant Professor Beth St. Jean, Assistant Professor