Health Information @Preuss (HIP)

Abstract

As the digital divide continues to narrow, young people from various socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnic groups are routinely searching for health information online; and it appears they are doing so from both their schools and their homes. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that in the fall of 2000, 98% of public schools were connected to the Internet (1). A national Internet-use survey among young people conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (these young people also reported that they were from “lower” or “working class” backgrounds), indicated that 63% of the respondents had Internet access at home (2). A significant segment of these respondents specified further that one of the subjects they regularly explore online is health information. Currently, though, online health information is a vast and varied landscape comprised of exhilarating peaks and dangerous valleys; and there are those who believe that this uneven situation poses a risk for young online health information seekers. With that in mind, and knowing that young people will continue to search for health information via the Internet, the University of California, San Diego Medical Center Library and The Preuss School UCSD created a program to integrate health information and health information literacy skills into the curricula of the school and thereby mitigate the retrieval of questionable and potentially dangerous health information by students.

Key Words:

• Information literacy
• health information
• public schools
• Internet
• risk factors
• middle school students