Sources Of Health Knowledge Research Articles

Effect of a board game on imprisoned women’s knowledge about sexually transmitted infections: a quasi-experimental study

IntroductionBoard games can be used as a playful educational practice in the teaching and learning process, as they constitute an educational technology that can be a source of health knowledge and an aid in decision-making. The objective of this research was to assess the effect of a board game on imprisoned women’s knowledge about STIs.MethodsA quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2022 with 64 imprisoned women who were students at a school located in a prison unit from the city of Recife, state of Pernambuco, Brazil. A 32-item instrument was used to assess knowledge about sexually transmitted infections before, immediately after the intervention and at 15 days. The intervention consisted in applying the Previna board game in a classroom. All the analyses were performed in the Stata software, version 16.0, with a 5% significance level.ResultsThe knowledge mean in the pre-test was 23.62 (± 3.23) points, whereas it rose to 27.93 (± 2,28) in the immediate post-test, dropping to 27.34 (± 2.37) (p < 0.001) in post-test 2, which was performed 15 days after the intervention. There was a statistically significant difference in the means obtained between the pre-test and the immediate post-test (p < 0.001), with a difference of 4.241 points, as well as between the pre-test and post-test 2 (p < 0.001), a difference of 3.846 spots.ConclusionsThe Previna board game significantly increased its players’ knowledge about STIs, and such increase in knowledge remained significant during the follow-up period.

Grouping Together to Fight Cancer: The Role of WeChat Groups on the Social Support and Self-Efficacy.

With the increasing number of cancer survivors, the question of how to coexist with cancer has become more and more pressing. This research uses a mutual help WeChat group organized by cancer patients as the research field to observe the daily interactions of cancer patients, so as to improve understanding of how social media technology can help cancer patients in the treatment and recovery process. The study found that the WeChat group is the main source of health knowledge for the participating cancer patients, and that when compared to traditional web-based patient mutual aid communities, the WeChat group is a more timely, popular, continuous, and accurate source of information. Patients in the group can listen and respond to each other's questions and worries, providing both an outlet for patients to vent their emotions and concerns and a source of recognition and encouragement. In addition, this study found that the WeChat mutual aid group improves patients' self-efficacy of disease on four levels: successful experience in curing patients, imitating patients' behavior, verbal persuasion, and emotional support.

70 Sharing Child Health Knowledge in an Urban Inuit Community: A Needs Assessment

Abstract Primary Subject area Public Health and Preventive Medicine Background It is well established that significant health disparities continue to affect Canadian Indigenous children living both in remote and urban areas. A critical component of health promotion is health knowledge dissemination. A 2011 Health Council of Canada study identified the need for better community knowledge of parenting and child health as intervention targets among Indigenous communities across Canada. Objectives In the present study, we aimed to explore the perspectives of Inuit parents and caregivers in one urban setting (Ottawa, Ontario) on the dissemination of child health knowledge specifically, with the intention of guiding future community-based child health promotion initiatives. Design/Methods Ottawa, being home to the largest Inuit population living outside Inuit Nunangat, provided an ideal study location. Many Inuit report relocating to Ottawa for employment, education, or for greater access to heath services. We therefore partnered with the Ottawa-based Inuuqatigiit Centre for Children, Youth, and Families, to design and conduct a needs assessment through a series of focus groups. Focus groups explored participants’ current sources of child health knowledge, child health topics of interest, and preferred formats for child health knowledge dissemination. Focus groups were held at Inuuqatigiit and included a meal of country food shared by study participants and research team members to support relationship-building and engagement. Focus groups were analyzed using an inductive approach to qualitative thematic analysis. Results 24 Inuit parents and caregivers participated in 4 focus groups. Factors affecting preferred sources of health knowledge included trustworthiness, fear of discrimination, cultural differences, and having a holistic approach. Participants identified several child health issues that should be the focus of future child health knowledge sharing initiatives, in particular those in which a sense of cultural dissonance was felt between traditional and Western approaches. In-person and online/interactive sessions were preferred over written materials. Many participants agreed that child health knowledge-sharing initiatives should be designed and delivered with involvement of the community. Participants also emphasized the importance of synthesizing traditional knowledge of Elders with that of health professionals. Conclusion There is a need for better child health knowledge dissemination strategies among the Ottawa Inuit community as a crucial aspect of health promotion. Special considerations when designing such initiatives must be given to historical dynamics of trust and mistrust of the health professions, to addressing cultural differences, and to the role of community members in the design and implementation of initiatives.

The Credibility of Health Information Sources as Predictors of Attitudes toward Vaccination-The Results from a Longitudinal Study in Poland.

Background: The research focused on the relationships between attitudes towards vaccination and the trust placed in different sources of information (science, experts and the information available on the Internet) before and during COVID-19. Method: A longitudinal design was applied with the first measurement in February 2018 (N = 1039). The second measurement (N = 400) was carried out in December 2020 to test if the pandemic influenced the trust in different sources of information. Results: The final analyses carried out on final sample of 400 participants showed that there has been no change in trust in the Internet as a source of knowledge about health during the pandemic. However, the trust in science, physicians, subjective health knowledge, as well as the attitude towards the vaccination has declined. Regression analysis also showed that changes in the level of trust in physicians and science were associated with analogous (in the same direction) changes in attitudes toward vaccination. The study was also focused on the trust in different sources of health knowledge as possible predictors of willingness to be vaccinated against SARS-nCoV-2. However, it appeared that the selected predictors explained a small part of the variance. This suggests that attitudes toward the new COVID vaccines may have different sources than attitudes toward vaccines that have been known to the public for a long time.

95 Child Health Promotion Through Community Educational Sessions in an Urban Inuit Community: A Needs Assessment

Abstract Introduction/Background Canadian Inuit children experience significant health disparities compared to their non-Inuit counterparts. Despite almost one-fifth of Canadian Inuit living in urban centres, few studies have explored their health needs. Current literature surveying Indigenous leaders identifies the need for improved access to child health and parenting knowledge. Community-based initiatives have been shown to improve Indigenous maternal and child health outcomes. Our study aimed to describe urban Inuit parents’ perspectives on accessing child health knowledge to guide development of Inuit-specific health knowledge-sharing initiatives. Objectives Design/Methods In conjunction with community partners, we conducted a qualitative needs assessment through focus groups at an urban-situated organization that provides cultural, educational, and social services to Inuit children and families. Participants were parents and caregivers of Inuit children. All focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and imported into NVivo software. Inductive coding was used to identify themes related to participants’ sources of health knowledge, barriers and facilitators to accessing health knowledge, and health topics that participants hoped to learn more about. Results Twenty-four individuals participated in four focus groups, of which twenty-one (88%) identified as Inuit. While participants represented a range of ages (19-40 years), most participants (42%) were 31-40 years old. The majority of participants (88%) identified as female. Participants had lived a median of 15 years in an urban setting (interquartile range 10-23). Seventeen participants (71%) cared for children aged 5 or younger. The main sources of health knowledge reported were Indigenous-focused services, online resources, telehealth and social networks (e.g. family and peers). The most notable barrier to accessing child health information was cultural differences (i.e. lifestyle and parenting practices). Discrimination and challenges with systems navigation also emerged as themes. Key health topics of interest included common childhood complaints (e.g. infections and immunizations), infant care, nutrition, parenting and development, mental health, and sexual education for adolescents. Preferred modes of child health information delivery were in-person sessions, pamphlets, and online videos with preferences for both health care providers and Inuit Elders as facilitators. Key access factors included Inuit language/translation, convenience of location, transportation, scheduling, and presence of food and childcare. Conclusion Our results reveal important factors affecting access to child health knowledge among Inuit families in a large urban setting, as well as key child health topics of interest to this population. Informed by these findings and with help from our community partners, we are co-developing child health knowledge-sharing initiatives specific to the needs of the Inuit community in our region.

How do Australian junior primary school children perceive the concepts of “healthy” and “unhealthy”?

Purpose – This paper aims to describe Australian children's perceptions of healthiness and sources of health knowledge in order to develop an understanding of young children's perceptions, knowledge and sources of influence to guide future behaviour change and health promotion strategies.Design/methodology/approach – One‐hour interactive focus groups were conducted in a South Australian primary school. Four small groups (n=28) of children aged five to nine participated in focus groups in which they were asked to discuss being healthy and their sources of health information as well as engaging in storying around the healthy or unhealthy behaviours of fictional characters.Findings – Children generally perceived themselves to be healthy. Perceptions of healthiness were equated with performing positive dietary (primarily eating fruit) and physical activity behaviours. Behaviours on an unhealthy day related to being sedentary and consuming “junk foods”. Commonly cited sources of health information included fam...

Understanding Morbidity Change: Reply to Riley

1992) for understanding morbidity change. Among the more contentious issues, Riley challenges the importance of the distinction between self-perceived morbidity and observed morbidity. He then claims that the duration of disease episodes is on average increasing. This increase is framed in terms of the epidemiological transition (Omran, 1971). According to Riley, the distinction between self-perceived and observed morbidity is false. Because self-perceived morbidity is partially informed by expert opinion, the difference between self-perceived and observed morbidity cannot be maintained. Yet, the evidence presented in our article is hard to refute. Self-reported and observed rates of various diseases do differ both in developing and developed communities. The existence of this difference was in a large part the motivation for our conceptual framework. The distinction between selfperceived and observed morbidity depends critically on the type of morbidity. We identified three types: morbidity that can be observed but not perceived, such as hypertension; morbidity that can be perceived but not observed, such as pain; and morbidity that can be observed and perceived, such as retinopathy. Clearly, the first category of morbidity can only be self-reported after contact with health services. The extensive literature on untreated and often undiagnosed hypertension in black Americans is testament to the importance of access to health services in influencing self-reported morbidity even in a high-income society. The second category of morbidity depends exclusively on self-perception. Observations of pain are essentially based on patient history. There is no battery of tests to detect the degree of pain or suffering. The often wide variance between self-reported and observed levels of the third type of morbidity requires the most explanation. Self-perceived morbidity is a complex function of observed morbidity, health expectations, contact with health services or other sources of health knowledge, and the social and cultural context. Riley appears to share our belief in the complex set of determinants of self-perceived and self-reported morbidity. His argument could be reformulated to state that over time, through exposure to expert opinion, self-perceived and

Health Knowledge of Nursery School Teachers in Northern Jordan

This study investigates the level of health knowledge of nursery school teachers in Northern Jordan. The Health Awareness Test (HAT) was administered to a sample of sixty teachers (66.7% of the population). The data analysis revealed that health knowledge among these teachers, in general, was much lower than the acceptable level determined by the HAT. Neither the teaching experience, academic degree, or marital status seemed to have influence on health knowledge on any of the dimensions covered by the HAT. In addition to the above results, the study revealed that the major sources of health knowledge among these teachers, ranked by order, were: self-education, mass media, education programs of the Ministry of Health, family, inservice training programs, and academic preparation. The implications of the above results are discussed.