331498
Social Media Intervention for Adolescents to Improve Healthy Lifestyles
Sara Hanks, MPH,
Health Sciences and Technology Academy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
Ann Chester, PhD,
Health Sciences and Technology Academy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
Summer Kuhn, MPH,
Health Sciences and Technology Academy, West Virginia University, Shady Spring, WV
Merge McMillion, MS,
Health Sceinces and Technology Academy, West Virgina University, Morgantown, WV
The HSTA My First Patient program was initiated in an on-campus Biomedical Summer Institute for rising 11th grade students with the goal of helping students understand their health and work towards a personal health goal while being mentored by professional students from across the health and medicine disciplines. About 120 students participated in the initial screenings which included blood pressure, heart rate, hemoglobin A1C, a lipid profile, fasting glucose and hematocrit measures as well as various behavioral assessments including measures on social support, hope and goal orientation and self-esteem. After these pre-screenings, students were counseled about their results and helped to form a personal goal to strive for over the next 7 months. Participants were then matched with other students from their summer camp into teams with professional students from the fields of medicine, nutrition and sports science to act as coaches. These teams, with their coaches, worked together through weekly messaging and contact on secret Facebook groups. The coaches delivered a weekly message on some aspect of healthy lifestyles and students were encouraged to discuss their goal progress as well as interact and support their fellow group members. After the 7-month intervention, students were screened again to determine if the social media intervention offered an environment for near peer mentors to improve biometric and psychometric measures. Data and results from biometric and psychometric assessments will be presented and discussed.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Describe the process of setting up a social media intervention for adolescents in a secure Facebook environment.
Explain the behavioral outcomes of the HSTA My First Patient program.
Explain the biometric outcomes of the HSTA My First Patient program.
Analyze the change in biometrics as a result of partcipation in the HSTA My First Patient program.
Keyword(s): Adolescents, Participatory Research
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the project director for many projects focusing on assesing the impact of interventions oin adolescent health. I have been involved in many community based particiatory research projects involving youth.
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.
