Media use, health information seeking, and health literacy for adolescents

Introduction: Health literacy impacts one's ability to access and understand health information. However, little is known about health literacy and adolescents, and almost no studies have examined the link between health literacy, media use patterns, and health information seeking preferences. Methods: The sample was 272 adolescents ages 12 to 19. Participants completed multiple self-administered surveys, one of which asked about demographics, media use and health information seeking preferences. The Rapid Estimate of Adolescent Literacy in Medicine was used to classify participants into 3 health literacy groups. Results: Those with the highest level of health literacy spent more time using the internet (p=.008) but less time watching TV (p=.002) and playing video games (p<.0001). For the 236 (87%) adolescents who had a cell phone, those in the lowest health literacy group (n=15) were less likely to use cell phone apps (p<.0001), get text messages (p<.0001), and access the internet (p<.0001) and social networking sites (p<.0001). When asked about getting health information, those in the lowest literacy group were more likely to say doctor and less likely to say the internet when asked where they would go first (p<.0001) and about the easiest source (p<.0001). However, when asked about the most credible source, they were less likely to say doctor and more likely to say internet (p<.0001). Conclusions: These results are useful to guide intervention planning and identify the best ways to get health information to adolescents with varying health literacy levels.