G4.01 - Learning Lab: Tiktok Doc – Understanding How Undergraduate Public Health Students Perceive Health Communication

Brief Abstract Summary: Understand how undergraduate public health students are perceiving public health information and why many young adults would rather “Ask the TikTok Doc” than try to decipher health communication from public health providers. This session will describe an integrated learning experience implemented in an undergraduate public health curriculum at a rural, public university that examined student perceptions of digital resources for patient education, involving a learning activity to develop public health educational material at an appropriate reading level and applying concepts of cultural competency. Presenters will ask questions relevant to the participants’ own teaching strategies regarding the important topic of healthcare literacy and healthcare disparities, as well as how analysis of internet-based resources can be utilized in disciplines other than healthcare. Presenters will facilitate an engaging group learning activity.

Detailed abstract description:

Background: Digital healthcare literacy is important since deficits are associated with health disparities. Health literacy involves the ability to find, understand, and utilize health information to support appropriate health decisions (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). More young adults are turning to unreliable internet sources for health information given the abundance of confusing medical jargon used in the field of public health. This session will describe an integrated learning experience implemented in an undergraduate public health curriculum at a rural, public university that examined student perceptions of digital resources for patient education, involving a learning activity to develop public health educational material at an appropriate reading level and applying concepts of cultural competency. Students analyzed national healthcare websites for readability, design, layout, cultural sensitivity, and appropriateness for a rural, low-health literacy population, better preparing students to educate communities in digital health literacy. Our alumni are likely to become public health practitioners, mostly community based, and thus, this learning activity helped to support their ability to provide guidance and digestible public health education to rural communities. Knowledge construction using such a teaching and learning strategy is based on the conceptual framework of Activity Theory (AT), a descriptive framework which involves contexts and activities in mediating health knowledge in the information society (Levin-Zamir & Bertschi, 2018; Nikolaidou & Bellander, 2020). The presentation will emphasize the importance of this topic in curricular strategies in public health education, since low health literacy is associated with health disparities particularly in rural areas. Session attendees can translate this approach to other disciplines that require the analysis and use of internet-based resources.

Methods: Demographic information and survey data were obtained from undergraduate public health students to assess digital health literacy and perceptions of the role of digital resources in patient education prior to and after they analyzed healthcare websites for digital health literacy. The survey used was eHEALS: The eHealth Literacy Scale, with permission from Norman and Skinner (2006).

Results: Preliminary data show a statistically significant increase in knowledge and understanding of health literacy among participants (α < 0.05). Further analyses ongoing; final results will be shared at the time of presentation.