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Article
Assessing the Digital Health Literacy Skills of Tween Participants in a School-Library-Based After-School Program
Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet
  • Natalie Greene Taylor, University of Maryland
  • Christie Kodama, University of Maryland
  • Mega Subramaniam, University of Maryland
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2017
Keywords
  • Credibility assessment,
  • digital health literacy,
  • eHealth literacy,
  • HackHealth,
  • information seeking,
  • internet searching,
  • tweens
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/15398285.2017.1279894
Abstract

Although young people are increasingly turning to the Internet for health-related information, very little is known about the state of their digital health literacy skills. At the beginning of an after-school program (HackHealth) to assist middle school students (ages 12–15) with their digital health literacy skills, a specially designed Digital Healthy Literacy Assessment Tool (DHLAT) was administered to 19 participants. Results suggest that while tweens are familiar with search engines and have a rudimentary sense of how to use them, they often lack important knowledge and skills needed to be fully digitally health literate. More research is needed to develop more broadly applicable tools for assessing tweens’ digital health literacy skills and to discover additional ways to work with youth to ensure they are equipped with the digital health literacy skills they need to successfully find, understand, assess, manage, and make use of online health information.

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, v. 21, issue 1, p. 40-61

Citation Information
Natalie Greene Taylor, Christie Kodama and Mega Subramaniam. "Assessing the Digital Health Literacy Skills of Tween Participants in a School-Library-Based After-School Program" Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet Vol. 21 Iss. 1 (2017) p. 40 - 61
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/natalie-greenetaylor/50/