Learning wellness: how ageing Australians experience health information literacy

Abstract

Given identified synergies between information use and health status greater understanding is needed about how people use information to learn about their health. This paper presents the findings of preliminary research into health information literacy. Analysis of data from semi-structured interviews revealed six different ways ageing Australians experience using information to learn about their health. Health information literacy is new terrain for information literacy research endeavours and one which warrants further attention by the profession to foster and promote within the community. … the set of abilities needed to: recognise a health information need; identify likely information sources and use them to retrieve relevant information; assess the quality of the information and its applicability to a specific situation; and analyse, understand and use the information to make good health decisions (MLA, 2003, para 5). This manuscript was received in March 2009 and is based on work done in a Queensland University of Technology Masters program. This is a refereed paper. IntroductionSeveral factors underline the importance and relevance of health information literacy for individuals, and the need to promote and develop this within the broader community. These include acknowledged interplay between health and information use, and rising demand for community access to health information emerging from changing interrelationships between professionals and consumers in the health care industry. Furthermore, the collective health status of our community has significant implications for current and future demand on health care systems, and health information literacy is an important tool that can assist individuals maintain good health and wellbeing.The modern world reflects an economy underpinned by knowledge, and it is information that enables individuals and communities to develop new knowledge to resolve issues on personal, professional and social levels. It has also been acknowledged that individual health behaviour is significantly influenced by knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, and synergies between these attributes can determine present and future health status (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008). If knowledge has the power to influence and shape individuals' health status it is important that we understand how people use information to learn about their health; that is, we need to understand how people experience health information literacy. This paper discusses the findings of preliminary research which explored how health information literacy is experienced in one aspect of community life. It reveals and provides early insights into: variation in how ageing Australians are using information to learn about • and maintain their health, and variation in what people constitute as information that is used for • maintaining health.The first objective was to examine the whole experience of health information literacy. Exploring variation in what constitutes information within that experience was id...

Current Programs and Future Needs in Health Literacy for Older People: A Literature Review

“…However, health literacy is a fast-growing area of enquiry. The key research which has occurred over the past few years has largely focused on defining and documenting the problem of low health literacy within populations (Institute of Medicine 2004), its pervasiveness (Kutner et al 2006), and its association with poor health outcomes (Baker It must be noted the general term health literacy also includes other areas or types that are becoming increasingly prominent in the health disciplines such as "health information literacy" (HIL), "e-health literacy," and "functional health literacy" (Yates, Partridge, and Bruce 2009;Kickbusch 2001). EriksoonBacka, Niemela, and Huotari (2012) argue health infromation literacy is similar to health literacy; however, it differs slightly in that it concentrates on describing health-related information behavior, including needs, seeking, and use of information related to health or medicine.…”

Website designers: how do they experience information literacy?

“…Participants were recruited through snowball sampling, which is a referral process in which the existing interviewee refers or introduces future interviewees. Phenomenographic analysis based on small sample sizes has also been conducted in other studies such as in Demasson Partridge, and Bruce (2010);McCosker, Barnard, and Gerber (2004); McMahon and Bruce (2002);and Yates, Partridge and Bruce (2009).…”

“…The relational view towards information literacy introduced by Bruce (1997) was then adopted more widely, but mostly in educational (Boon, Johnston, and Webber 2007;Edwards 2006;Lupton 2008) and community settings (Gunton, Bruce, and Stoodely 2012;Yates, Partridge, and Bruce 2009;Yates et al 2012). The current study is also using the relational perspective.…”

Information literacy programs and research: reflections on ‘Information literacy programs and research: An international review’ by Christine Bruce. 2000.The Australian Library Journal49 no. 3: 209–218

“…This body of work over the last ten or more years has confirmed the view raised in The ALJ article (Bruce 2000) at the turn of the decade, that information literacy does not have a life of its own, its many dimensions are closely related to the contexts in which it is experienced. For example, students learning to search the internet (Edwards 2006), fire-fighters using information (Lloyd 2007(Lloyd , 2009), students learning tax-law and music composition (Lupton 2008), teachers of specific disciplines (Boon, Webber & Johnson 2007), international students at university (Hughes 2010), older Australians using health information (Yates 2009;Yates et al 2012), information use in the church community (Gunton 2011), and teen content creators using information to learn (Harlan, Bruce & Lupton 2012). Also of importance have been the development of the Six Frames for Information Literacy Education (Bruce, Edwards & Lupton 2006), and the idea of informed learning (Bruce 2008) which highlight the value of the phenomenographic approach to information literacy education.…”