Health Management: Occupational Therapy ’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information
Background: Only 12% of Americans possess proficient health literacy skills. Among those with the lowest health literacy are individuals with chronic health conditions. Occupational therapists are well prepared to assist these clients with health literacy, given our roles in teaching new health mana...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Scholarworks @ WMU
2019-10-01
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| Series: | Open Journal of Occupational Therapy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1595&context=ojot |
| _version_ | 1819105724519677952 |
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| author | Amy Armstrong-Heimsoth Melissa L. Johnson Meredith Carpenter Tincey Thomas Ashley Sinnappan |
| author_facet | Amy Armstrong-Heimsoth Melissa L. Johnson Meredith Carpenter Tincey Thomas Ashley Sinnappan |
| author_sort | Amy Armstrong-Heimsoth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Only 12% of Americans possess proficient health literacy skills. Among those with the lowest health literacy are individuals with chronic health conditions. Occupational therapists are well prepared to assist these clients with health literacy, given our roles in teaching new health management skills and health promotion.
Methods: An educational course was designed and taught to over 100 individuals and caregivers with chronic health
conditions to assist in finding and determining trustworthy health information online. An author designed pre
postsurvey was used to evaluate effectiveness.
Results: There was a significant pre-post change in four categories: finding quality health information online (M = 0.703), judging trustworthiness of online health information (M = 0.624), understanding health information (M = 0.489), and retrieving information using email alerts (M = 0.826).
Conclusion: The ability to find and evaluate health information online empowers clients to fully participate in medical care. Evidence shows that this skill can be efficiently taught to clients or client groups for improved health management. Providing training in finding trustworthy health information online is a skill that occupational therapists can successfully teach in conjunction with overall health management skills for improved occupational participation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T02:26:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e06b9a6716a44eb4bdc71a814ee48a85 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2168-6408 2168-6408 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T02:26:48Z |
| publishDate | 2019-10-01 |
| publisher | Scholarworks @ WMU |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Journal of Occupational Therapy |
| spelling | doaj.art-e06b9a6716a44eb4bdc71a814ee48a852022-12-21T18:42:00ZengScholarworks @ WMUOpen Journal of Occupational Therapy2168-64082168-64082019-10-017410.15453/2168-6408.1595Health Management: Occupational Therapy ’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health InformationAmy Armstrong-Heimsoth0Melissa L. Johnson1Meredith Carpenter2Tincey Thomas3Ashley Sinnappan4Northern Arizona UniversityArizona State UniversityNorthern Arizona UniversityNorthern Arizona UniversityNorthern Arizona UniversityBackground: Only 12% of Americans possess proficient health literacy skills. Among those with the lowest health literacy are individuals with chronic health conditions. Occupational therapists are well prepared to assist these clients with health literacy, given our roles in teaching new health management skills and health promotion. Methods: An educational course was designed and taught to over 100 individuals and caregivers with chronic health conditions to assist in finding and determining trustworthy health information online. An author designed pre postsurvey was used to evaluate effectiveness. Results: There was a significant pre-post change in four categories: finding quality health information online (M = 0.703), judging trustworthiness of online health information (M = 0.624), understanding health information (M = 0.489), and retrieving information using email alerts (M = 0.826). Conclusion: The ability to find and evaluate health information online empowers clients to fully participate in medical care. Evidence shows that this skill can be efficiently taught to clients or client groups for improved health management. Providing training in finding trustworthy health information online is a skill that occupational therapists can successfully teach in conjunction with overall health management skills for improved occupational participation.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1595&context=ojoteHealthhealth literacyhealth managementoccupational therapyconsumer health informationinformation literacy education |
| spellingShingle | Amy Armstrong-Heimsoth Melissa L. Johnson Meredith Carpenter Tincey Thomas Ashley Sinnappan Health Management: Occupational Therapy ’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information Open Journal of Occupational Therapy eHealth health literacy health management occupational therapy consumer health information information literacy education |
| title | Health Management: Occupational Therapy ’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information |
| title_full | Health Management: Occupational Therapy ’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information |
| title_fullStr | Health Management: Occupational Therapy ’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information |
| title_full_unstemmed | Health Management: Occupational Therapy ’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information |
| title_short | Health Management: Occupational Therapy ’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information |
| title_sort | health management occupational therapy s key role in educating clients about reliable online health information |
| topic | eHealth health literacy health management occupational therapy consumer health information information literacy education |
| url | https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1595&context=ojot |
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