Promoting Improved Access to Consumer Health Information

“Do you have any information on lupus?” “What are the side effects of Prozac?” “I want to find an herbal remedy for arthritis.” Questions such as these are asked each day across the country at public library reference desks. The boom of interest in consumer health, fueled by changes in society and the medical system itself, has strained the infrastructure for dissemination of such information, including at the local public library. In response to this problem, medical libraries, led by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), have explored methods of partnering with public libraries to provide improved consumer health information for their clientele. Cooperation between medical and public libraries has proven to be quite effective

Promoting public access to Health information: experience of the Association for Health Information and Library in Africa (AHILA) Tanzania Chapter

Conference Theme: Dynamic Libraries: Access, Development and TransformationHealth is an essential aspect for development. People with poor health and malnourished in the community fail to work hard and hence slow down the development of a nation. Promoting and improving public access to nutrition and health related information is a most important activity in people’s livelihood in the community. The purpose of this article is to discuss initiatives of the project that was conducted by Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA)–Tanzania Chapter in promoting and improving public access to health information. The project activities started June 2013 and ended September 2013. The project was executed by Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre library in collaboration with Association for Health Information and Libraries–Tanzania Chapter (AHILA TZ Chapter) and Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW). The article also discusses the achievement, challenges and lessons learned from the project.published_or_final_versio

Does use of ICT-based market information services (MIS) improve welfare of smallholder farm households: Evidence from Kenya

The need to provide agricultural information to farmers has led to emergence of numerous ICT-based MIS projects in developing country. These projects aim at promoting commercialization of smallholder agriculture and subsequently their welfare. This study examines the welfare effects of one such project in western Kenya. It uses household food security and access to medical health services as proxies of welfare. The study finds that farmers that use ICT-based market information are more food secure and have better access to medical health services than their counterpart. It highlights policy implications of these findings.Smallholder farmers, market information service, mobile phones, well-being, Kenya, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, Marketing,

MedlinePlus Health Educator PSA 60 sec

Public Service Announcement promoting access to MedlinePlus for health information and educatio

On gender and growth : the role of intergenerational health externalities and women's occupational constraints

This paper studies the growth effects of externalities associated with intergenerational health transmission, health persistence, and women's occupational constraints-- with particular emphasis on the role of access to infrastructure. The first part provides a review of the evidence on these issues. The second and third parts present an overlapping generations model of endogenous growth that captures these interactions, and characterize its properties. The model is then used to perform several gender-based or gender-related experiments -- a reduction in the cost of child rearing, improved wage equality in the market place, and better access to infrastructure. The last part draws together the implications of the analysis for promoting the role of women in growth strategies.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Gender and Health,Gender and Law,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems

My Health My Community – an intersectoral collaboration for population health improvement

 Background: My Health My Community (MHMC) is a collaborative initiative, developed to fill a gap in health and well-being information for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and Fraser Health (FH) regions. MHMC survey sought to capture information within the domains of socio-demographics, health status, lifestyle, access to care, built environment and community resiliency. VCH and FHA engaged their municipal governments and community partners to develop relevant content and recruit participants. Purpose: Understand the burden and determinants of chronic disease at a local level (municipal and neighborhood) that facilitates partnership with local governments and community organizations to create health-promoting environments

Access to and Use of Technology for Health: Comparisons Between Appalachian Kentuckians and the General U.S. Population

Introduction: Technology may increase the availability of health information and enable health promoting behaviors. However, lack of access to and use of technology may also exacerbate disparities, particularly in rural communities with limited Internet access. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare Internet access, device ownership, and use of technology for health between Appalachian Kentuckians and the general U.S. population. Methods: Findings from the 2017 Assessing the Health Status of Kentucky (ASK) survey were compared to national estimates from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 5, Cycle 1 (2017), with a particular focus on degree of rurality. ASK and HINTS respondent sociodemographics, Internet access, and use of technology for health were assessed using weighted percentages; chi-square P-values were calculated based on weighted counts. Results: Over 80% of both populations reported accessing the Internet. However, Appalachian Kentuckians across all geographic strata were significantly less likely to access the Internet through broadband, cellular networks, and Wi-Fi. The U.S. population reported greater electronic device ownership rates. Appalachian Kentuckians were significantly more likely to search for cancer information online compared to national estimates. The majority of both populations reported not having health apps on their smartphones or tablets. Appalachian Kentuckians reported significantly lower rates of using electronic media to exchange information with health professionals. Implications: Ensuring high-speed Internet access among Appalachian Kentuckians could help this population leverage available technology to overcome barriers to care and reduce health disparities – for example, by enabling the use of health-related apps or electronic means to remotely communicate with providers. Such technologies have the potential to improve the health of medically underserved populations and deserve further attention

Health Websites: Accessibility and Usability for American Sign Language Users

To date, there have been efforts towards creating better health information access for Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users. However, the usability of websites with access to health information in ASL has not been evaluated. Our paper focuses on the usability of four health websites that include ASL videos. We seek to obtain ASL users’ perspectives on the navigation of these ASL-accessible websites, finding the health information that they needed, and perceived ease of understanding ASL video content. ASL users (N=32) were instructed to find specific information on four ASL-accessible websites, and answered questions related to: 1) navigation to find the task, 2) website usability, and 3) ease of understanding ASL video content for each of the four websites. Participants also gave feedback on what they would like to see in an ASL health library website, including the benefit of added captioning and/or signer model to medical illustration of health videos. Participants who had lower health literacy had greater difficulty in finding information on ASL-accessible health websites. This paper also describes the participants’ preferences for an ideal ASL-accessible health website, and concludes with a discussion on the role of accessible websites in promoting health literacy in ASL users