University of Oulu

Everyday Health Information Literacy research and Energy Information Literacy

Prof. Maija-Leena Huotari

University of Oulu, Jan 25, 2017

University of Oulu

Introduction

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Previous research projects related to information literacy and EHIL (1)

The Academy of Finland funded projects

1) Health Information Practice and its Impact (HeIP), conducted with Åbo Akademi University in 2008–2012

Among other findings increased understanding of childhood obesity through a doctoral study focusing on the creation of patient value for obese children and their families in Finnish health care practice (Känsäkoski 2014, Känsäkoski & Huotari Journal of Documentation 2016).

2) Utilization of Health Information Management and Modern Technology in the Prevention of Obesity of the PrevMetSynconsortium, funded by the Academy’s SALVE programme in 2010–2012, Sub-project focused on developing an everyday health information literacy (EHIL) screening tool (Niemelä et al. 2012), which was also utilized in lifestyle counselling(Huotari et al. 2015).

The MOPO study (2009–2015) co-funded by the EU/ESF and EU/ERDF, Finnish Development Fund for Innovation TEKES and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. The EHIL tool was further tested among call-up-aged young men of the MOPO study in the doctoral studies of Hirvonen (2015) and Enwald(2013), and a number of international, high quality articles published.

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Previous research projects related to the EHIL (2)

‒ The Joy of Reading Program (2012–20151) conducted

together by the Faculties of Humanities and Education

at the University of Oulu, funded by the Finnish

Ministry of Education and Culture.

- Aimed at developing comprehensive reading skills for children

and young people, boys in particular, and promoting motivation to

read through cooperation between schools, libraries and homes.

Focusing on multiliteracy and the use of new technologies

supported developing new curricula (the national curriculum will

be in force from 2016) and library strategies.

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Limitations of previous research within this multi-disciplinary fieldof research (1)

- Literacy research conducted in isolation within education, psychology, psycholinguistics= > theories segregated, fragmented, compartmentalized with limited applicability in practice

-Literacies investigated as individuals’ instrumental skills rather than as situated, socially derived practices.

-Research on health literacy conducted mostly in medical settings (Chinn & McCarthy 2013)

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Limitations of previous research (2)

-- The concept of new literacies is new in

health context

‒ Research on new literacies focused on

formal school environments (Gee 2010)

‒ Research limited on health related

literacies in everyday life settings, and on

literacy practices in which formal and

informal or even non-formal environments

are examined in an integrated manner

‒ Web-based and other practices typically

investigated separately from each other

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A new project’CogAHealth’ funded by theAcademy of Finland in 2016 - 2020

- Cognitive Authorities in Everyday Health

Information Environments of

Young People (CogAHealth) aims at

deepening the understanding of the

construction of cognitive authority among

young people (10-24-year-olds, UN 2015)

when participating in contemporary health

information environments.

- Because in constantly transforming

information environment it is not easy to

determine who and what to believe and trust

in health issues (Niemelä et al. 2012)

=> It is demanding to know who or what

cognitive authorities are in health

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MainConcepts

- Information Literacy (IL) ‘the set of

integrated abilities encompassing the

reflective discovery of information, the

understanding of how information is

produced and valued, and the use of

information in creating new knowledge

and participating ethically in

communities of learning.’ (ACRL 2015, 3)

‒ Health Information Literacy

Everyday Health Information Literacy

(EHIL, Niemelä et al. 2012)

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Main Concepts

Cognitive Authority (CA, P. Wilson 1983)

-Based on influence rather than position

-Evaluated on the basis of an individual’s

information need and the context in which

the information will be used

-Communities may recognize different types

of CA

=> CA is contextual and constructed (ACRL

2015, Huvila 2013).

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Authority examined through the concept of new literacies

Because New Literacies

- Refer to participation, production, non-

professional expertise, and shared

authority (Gee 2010) and understanding

literacies as a meaning-making social

practice (Selander & Kress 2010)

- Involve multimodal, diversified texts (e.g.

figurative, aural, spoken, written,

numerical, gestural, factual, imaginative)

- Are transforming and transformative

(Martin & Grudziecki 2006), implying a

mutual shaping relationship of media,

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Further develop-ment of the EHIL screening tool

Includes ten statements [with response options from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)]:

1. It is important to be informed about health issues.2. I know where to seek health information.3. I like to get health information from a variety of sources.4. It is difficult to find health information from printed sources (magazines and books).5. It is difficult to find health information from the Internet.6. It is easy to assess the reliability of health information in printed sources (magazines and books).7. It is easy to assess the health information on the Internet.8. Health related terminology and statements are often difficult to understand.9. I apply health related information to my own life and/or that of people close to me.10. It is difficult to know who to believe in health issues.

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DiscussionYour comments are very welcome

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References

American Library Association, ALA (1989) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report.http://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential Cited 2015/09/09

Association of College and Research Libraries, ACRL (2015) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework Cited 09/09/2015

Chinn, D. & McCarthy, C. (2013) All Aspects of Health Literacy Scale (AAHLS): developing a tool to measure functional, communicative and critical health literacy in primary healthcare settings. Patient Education and Counseling 90(2), 247–253.

Enwald, H. (2013) Tailoring health communication: the perspective of information users' health information behaviour in relation to their

physical health status. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. B 118. Oulu. Diss. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526202792

Gee, J.P. (2010) New digital media and learning as an emerging area and “worked examples” as on way forward. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

Hirvonen, N. (2015) Health information matters: everyday health information literacy and behaviour in relation to health behaviour and physical health among young men. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. B 133. Oulu. Diss. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526210407

Huotari, M.-L., Enwald, H., Hirvonen, N., Keränen, A.-M., Jokelainen, T., Salonurmi, T. & Niemelä, R. (2015) Everyday health information literacy in couselling on healthy eating. The case of PrevMetSyn. In Serap Kurbanoglu et al. (eds.) Proceedings of European Conference on Information Literacy, ECIL’s Proceedings. CCIS (Communications in Computer and Information Science) series. Springer.

Huvila, I. (2013) In Web search we trust? Articulation of the cognitive authorities of Web searching. Information Research 18(1), paper 567.

Känsäkoski, H. & Huotari, M.-L. (2015) Applying the Theory of Information Worlds within a health care practice in Finland. Journal of Documentation, 72(2), 321-341.

Känsäkoski, H. (2014) Value creation in childhood obesity care and prevention. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. B 119. Oulu. Diss. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526204130

Martin, A. & Grudziecki, J. (2006) DigEuLit: concepts and tools for digital literacy development. Innovation in Teaching And Learning in Information and Computer Sciences, 5(4), 1-19.

Niemelä, R., Ek, S., Eriksson-Backa, K. & Huotari, M.-L. (2012) A screening tool for assessing everyday health information literacy. Libri 62(2), 125–134.

Selander, S. & Kress, G. (2010) Design för lärande – ett multimodalt perspektiv. Stockholm, Norstedt.

Wilson, P.A. (1983) Second-hand knowledge: an inquiry into cognitive authority. Westport, CT, Greenwood Press.