Student’s health information literacy skills for self-care in Kuwait University, health science center

2^nd International Conference on Health Informatics and Technology

July 27-29, 2015 Valencia, Spain

Mariam Al-Mahdi

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Health Med Informat

Abstract :

The research aimed to evaluate studentsâ?? health information literacy (HIL) skills in Kuwait University, Health Science Center (HSC) in context of seeking, using, and evaluating health information (HI) for self-care. The research frame work was based on Dervinâ??s sense-making theory by Brenda Dervin. The main question was to know how effective HIL skills users perceive it to be. The research followed a descriptive cross-sectional design. The questionnaires respond rate was 72.5%. The random sample consisted of 145 students, including 122 females and 23 males. It was administered at HSC in Kuwait University. Questionnaires were used to evaluate HSC studentsâ?? HIL and HI skills such as seeking, evaluating, and using HI for self-care, also it asked if they want to be a social change agent, which means the HSC students have the HI and they want to pass it to their society. The findings of the study showed that 59.3% of HSC students found difficulty evaluating the HI, and 34.5% of them experienced HI searching problems. Moreover, the vast majority of HSC students responded that they would like to be a social change agent. The stated findings indicated an evidence of barriers preventing HSC students from seeking and using reliable HI for self-care, strategies they used in specific self-care situations and outcomes of their HI use. It is valued to incorporate understanding in designing more effective college health elevation programs for HSC students such as a HIL course, which should enhance the objective of HIL assessment tools of HI seeking and using.

Biography :

Mariam AL-Mahdi is a junior researcher as a second year Health Informatics & Information Management Student at the age of 21 from Kuwait University. She is studying her bachelor in Health Informatics & Information Management at Allied Health Sciences in Kuwait University.