healthy people 2020 - Society for Public Health Education

✯ Conference Abstracts ✯
friday | november 5
health informatics, public health, health services, health education, and
information transmission processes, all blended together to facilitate the
widespread dissemination of relevant public health information. The
synergy among these fields is evidenced primarily through the use of
the internet and other related technologies to ultimately improve health
outcomes. College students generally have easy access to health information
on the internet and feel comfortable using the internet; therefore,
they are often thought to be adept consumers of e-health information.
There is important research which has been conducted investigating
perceived and actual “e-health literacy” among college students which
somewhat contradicts this pre-conceived expectation. E-health literacy
has been defined as the ability of individuals to seek, find, understand,
and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply such
information to addressing or solving a particular health problem. The
purpose of this presentation will be to highlight a literature review done
to evaluate the results of existing research on e-health literacy among
college students. This review suggests that pervasive internet access and
usage among college students have not necessarily translated into an
ability to discern quality health information on the web. Studies indicate
that many students lack competencies which limit their ability to utilize
electronic resources to obtain quality health information. Interestingly,
however, students’ self-ratings of their own e-health literacy skills tend
to be quite high, even though these perceptions may not be accurate
predictors of their actual e-health information competencies. In addition,
the frequency of college students attempting to use the internet to
obtain health-related information was not as prevalent as what might be
expected. Moreover, there is significant room for improving college students’
ability to obtain and evaluate electronic health information. These
findings present an important opportunity to build e-health information
competencies among college-age students, especially in health education.
Future e-health educators should be equipped with planned learning
experiences contained within professional preparation programs, given
that this skill set is becoming a core element within the overall health
education field. Suggestions for future coursework dedicated to e-health
literacy will be proposed based on the findings of this literature review.
Incorporating Social Media into a Health Education Campaign:
Lessons from Confess! Cervical Cancer Awareness Campaign.
Jessica Albeita, MPH, Research Administration and Community Outreach,
Prevent Cancer Foundation; Karen J. Peterson, PhD, Prevent Cancer Foundation;
Kristina Hunken, MA, Prevent Cancer Foundation; Apoorva Sabnis
Stull, MA, National Committee for Quality Assurance; Erica Childs Warner,
MPH, Prevent Cancer Foundation
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sophe conference ✯ november 4-6, 2010
With a grant from the Fund to End Cervical Cancer, the Prevent Cancer
Foundation developed an interactive cervical cancer education and
awareness campaign. Launched in July 2009 at http://confess.preventcancer.org,
the Confess! Cervical Cancer Awareness Campaign includes
a Web site geared toward women ages 20 – 29 and a tool that provides
tailored information to a variety of age groups seeking information
about cervical cancer prevention and early detection, as well as an opportunity
to express behavioral intention supportive of early detection
of cervical cancer. Confess is similar to other “consciousness raising”
media campaigns. Confess is solely Web-based, includes very little
paid media and incorporates a significant amount of social marketing
via Twitter and Facebook. This presentation will examine the Confess
campaign from July to December 2009. Over these six months, Confess
had over 7,325 page views, including 6,376 unique page views. Visitors
taking action on the site resulted in 323 notes posted and 235 pledges to
get screened. Individuals spent an average of 2:53 minutes viewing the
Confess page. Social marketing was added to Confess in August 2009
with two Twitter accounts, @weconfess and @6kpledge2screen. @weconfess
tweeted (posted messages) 115 times and had 54 followers and
@6kpledge2screen tweeted 105 times and had 46 followers. A Confess
Fan Page was started on Facebook with some daily advertising. The Confess
Fan Page sent out 52 messages and had 191 fans. Many lessons were
learned during this period from both successes and failures. The lessons
include: 1) Use a multi-disciplinary team approach to development; 2)
Focus-test content and format with your core audience, even if it isn’t in
your budget; 3) Stretch your dollars by using strategically placed Web
ads that specifically target your key audience; 4) In addition to using
conventional media outlets, reach out to Web-based outlets for earned
media, including bloggers, popular tweeters and magazines; 5) Safeguard
the quality of information shared and consistency of the tone and voice
used to speak with and engage your audience; and 6) Understand that
social marketing takes a lot of time! We consider Confess to be a success
and are planning to dedicate more resources to this campaign and address
some of these lessons learned.
Health Education and the Electronic Health Information
Exchange Revolution.
Authors: William Livingood, PhD, Duval County Health Department
Abstract: Major resources are being dedicated to electronic health
records (ehr) and information exchange (ehie) following enactment
of the ARRA. “Meaningful Use” of electronic health record systems
requiring ehie is a major foundation of health care reform and a critical
strategy for improved effectiveness and quality of health care as well as
reduced costs and increased efficiency. Despite the strong rationale for
ehie systems and major commitments of dedicated resources, wide scale
adoption faces many barriers. Fragmentation and competition at virtually
all levels present major challenges to coordination and collaboration
necessary for the development of effective ehie. The challenges to developing
ehie networks for heath care and public health are increasingly
recognized as behavioral, social and political, rather than technological.
Although disseminating and transmitting health Information has been a
major focus of Health Education and overcoming social and behavioral
barriers to health are also basic to health education, health education’s
role in developing health information exchange has been elusive at best.
We provide a rationale for why this is a public health issue of major
societal concern and an example of how health education research and
practice can play a pivotal role in developing this critical element of
health care reform. In particular, Health Education research and practice
related to coalitions provide important strategies for overcoming the
challenges in developing ehie. The application of this health education
strategy by local health agencies can be found in a leadership guide on
NACCHO and PHII websites and presents one example of how health
education can plan a major role in this societal transformation
concurrent session a4
Room: Nat Hill
mile high strategies for professional preparation
Extending Students’ Learning with the New SOPHE Textbook:
Semester Class Projects, Needs Assessments and Internships.
Carl Fertman, PhD, MBA, CHES, University of Pittsburgh; Randy Cottrell,
DEd, CHES, University of Cincinnati; Robert Strack, PhD, MBA,
University of North Carolina Greensboro
In April 2010 SOPHE published it first text book - Health Promotion
Programs: From Theory to Practice. The book presents an overview of
best program practices based on theory to promote health equity from
a wide variety of settings that include schools, health care organizations,