230198 Increasing adolescents' health literacy using social media: Intervention research planning and audience characteristics

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 : 3:00 PM - 3:15 PM

Deborah Glik, ScD , School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA
Michael Prelip, MPH, DPA , School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Abdelmonem Afifi, PhD , UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Philip M. Massey, MPH , Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Nancy Wongvipat Kalev, MPH , Director, Health Education/Cultural and Linguistic Services, Health Net of California, Woodland Hills, CA
Elaine Robinson-Frank, RN, MPH , Department of Quality Assurance, Health Net of California, Woodland Hills, CA
Sharon Nessim, Dr PH , Manager, QI Research & Analysis, Health Net of California, Woodland Hills, CA
Nedra Weinreich, MS , Weinreich Communications, Los Angeles, CA
Michael Fiore , EPG Technologies, Van Nuys, CA
In California 88% of teens are insured, however they often don't use their health insurance effectively. We define this broadly as a health literacy issue. This intervention research tests whether a social media intervention can encourage adolescents ages 13 – 17 to better utilize their health insurance benefits. We are partnering with a large health insurance company, Health Net of California, who manages the health care of thousands of adolescents who have public health insurance. The social media website created includes forming a community of users, teen and professionally produced content, storytelling formats, competitions, games, quizzes, blogs, video sharing and other interactive and participatory communication methods. We are using an RCT to test intervention impact, comparing our social media intervention and ‘usual care'. Our initial sample is 8000 Health Net enrollees out of 155,000 Medi-Cal and Healthy Families teens served. A 2-wave comparison groups design uses self report questionnaires as well as administrative data to assess changes in adolescents' utilization patterns, understanding of health insurance benefits, rights and responsibilities, primary care provider encounters, health information seeking, attitudes and health behaviors. Of particular interest is increasing the use of the annual Adolescent Wellness Visit from 36% to 45%. Moreover we are testing whether teens will increase conversations with their doctors about reproductive health, physical health and substance abuse, mental health, violence, or decrease use the emergency room for routine care. We will report on formative research, the social media website and give initial results from the baseline survey.

Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe materials developed and research methodologies that were used to mount a social media intervention among California teens in a large HMO (Health Net of California) who have Medi-Cal and Healthy Families health insurance. 2. Explore dimensions of teen health literacy including their perceptions of health benefits, rights and responsibilities 3. Forulate ways to use baseline findings to examine who engages in this type of intervention.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, New Technology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified as principal investigator of NICHD funded grant as well as over 30 years of experience in health promotion and communication.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.