A qualitative study exploring high school students’ understanding of, and attitudes towards, health information and claims

Abstract

BackgroundExposure to health claims, particularly in the media and social media, is pervasive, and the information conveyed is often inaccurate, incomplete or misleading. Some young people of high school ages are already making decisions about using readily available health interventions (such as sports drinks and beauty products).Although previous research has assessed adults’ understanding of health claims, no research has examined this issue in young adults who are attending high school.ObjectiveTo explore high school students’ understanding of, and attitudes towards, concepts relevant to assessing health information and claims.DesignA qualitative study involving semi‐structured interviews with 27 Australian high school students. Responses were recorded, transcribed and a thematic analysis performed. Three themes emerged as follows: (i) Variability in sources of health information and claims, and general understanding of their creation and accuracy of content, (ii) The use of substitute indicators to assess health information and claims and make judgements about their trustworthiness, (iii) Uncertainty about, and literal interpretation of, the language of health claims. Despite general scepticism of health claims and admitted uncertainty of research terminology, many students were generally convinced. Students had poor understanding about how health claims are generated and tended to rely on substitute indicators, such as endorsements, when evaluating the believability of claims.ConclusionSchool students’ lack of awareness of basic health research processes and methods of assessing the accuracy of health information and claims makes them vulnerable to distorted and misleading health information. This restricts their ability to make informed health decisions – a skill that increases in importance as they become adults.

Consumer Evaluation of the Quality of Online Health Information: Systematic Literature Review of Relevant Criteria and Indicators

“…The second most frequently reported indicators were about disclosure. Sites that disclose their motivations were highly valued [40,42,48,64,66,67], whereas a lack of a clear statement of purpose and motivation damaged trust [49]. The third mostly frequently reported indicators were recommendations from other systems or users.…”

“…High ranks in search engines [13,52,63] and a large number of visitors or followers [61,63] were viewed as indicators of high site popularity, and subsequently, high quality. In addition, sites linked from or recommended by a trusted website [30,43,53] or trusted others (eg, health care providers, families, and friends) [20,41,47,61,67] were considered trustworthy.…”

The cognitive authority of user-generated health information in an online forum for girls and young women

“…For example, harmful behaviour can be normalized in an online community (see e.g., Dyson et al, 2016). Moreover, concerns have been expressed about the lack of young people's abilities to assess information credibility (Nettleton et al, 2005;Fergie et al, 2012;Adams et al, 2006), and, consequently, their vulnerability to misleading or even harmful information (Cusack et al, 2017).…”

Young People, Social Media and Health

“…A general conclusion from this work to date is that while young people are often sceptical of health-related messages and products on social media, they nevertheless lack the critical health literacy skills to make accurate judgements about the value of that information (e.g. Cusak et al 2017). Researchers also report the potential for serious harm resulting from internet use generally (Marchant et al 2017), from social media use in particular, and its effects on mental health , from social media addiction (Webb and Wasilick 2015) and from anxieties centred on body image (Andsager 2014).…”