Academic Journal

Health Management: Occupational Therapy’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information

Bibliographic Details
Title: Health Management: Occupational Therapy’s Key Role in Educating Clients About Reliable Online Health Information
Authors: Armstrong-Heimsoth, Amy, Johnson, Melissa L., Carpenter, Meredith, Thomas, Tincey, Sinnappan, Ashley
Source: Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, Vol 7, Iss 4 (2019)
Publisher Information: WMU Department of Occupational Therapy, 2019.
Publication Year: 2019
Subject Terms: 4. Education, information literacy education, RM1-950, 3. Good health, 03 medical and health sciences, 0302 clinical medicine, occupational therapy, Medicine and Health Sciences, health management, consumer health information, eHealth, Therapeutics. Pharmacology, health literacy
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.
Document Type: Article
File Description: application/pdf
Language: English
ISSN: 2168-6408
DOI: 10.15453/2168-6408.1595
Access URL: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1595&context=ojot
https://doaj.org/article/e06b9a6716a44eb4bdc71a814ee48a85
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1595&context=ojot
https://doaj.org/article/e06b9a6716a44eb4bdc71a814ee48a85
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/ojot/vol7/iss4/8/
Accession Number: edsair.doi.dedup.....1f189d793155209f30af6339afe2ebb5
Database: OpenAIRE
Description
ISSN:21686408
DOI:10.15453/2168-6408.1595