Enhancing the health information literacy skills of older adults

Abstract

Objective: The study objective was to assess the effectiveness of an interactive, hands-on, three-lesson series in enhancing older adults' health information literacy skills, specifically their abilities to find reliable online health information and assess the quality of online health information. Methods: Faculty members and students from a school of pharmacy used a mobile computer classroom to present the lesson series at local senior centers. The lessons were derived from the National Institute on Aging's “Helping Older Adults Search for Health Information Online: A Toolkit for Trainers”: Lesson 1-Introduction to MedlinePlus; Lesson 2-MedlinePlus: Drugs and Supplements, Medical Encyclopedia; and Lesson 3- Evaluating Health Websites. Pre-lesson, post-lesson, and follow-up surveys were administered to assess the effectiveness of each lesson and the three-lesson series. Results: Approximately 7 older adults attended each of the 28 lessons presented at 5 senior centers; 47 older adults completed the three-lesson series. The lessons increased older adults' confidence in (1) finding reliable online health information (35.3% were confident/ very confident pre-Lesson 1, 72.5% pre-Lesson 2, 100% on all post-lesson and follow-up surveys); (2) evaluating the reliability of online health information (23.5% pre-Lesson 1, 96.2% post-Lesson 3, 100% follow-up); and (3) evaluating the accuracy of online health information (29.4% pre-Lesson 1, 96.1% post-Lesson 3, 94.8% follow-up). Conclusion: When older adults lack health information literacy skills, they may become easy targets of health scams or suffer adverse health outcomes. Health information literacy empowers older adults to manage their health.