Improving Older Adults' E-health Literacy: A Pilot Study

Health literacy is a critical issue for our rapidly aging population. The long term objective of this study is to advance scientific knowledge about optimal training intervention methods in informal educational settings (e.g., public libraries) that can effectively promote the use of quality Internet health information by older adults with varying levels of prior computer experience. Specific aims are: 1) Examine the effects of collaborative versus individualistic learning in informal educational settings on older adults’ learning and use of quality Internet health information; and 2) Examine how the effects of collaborative versus individualistic learning interact with those of heterogeneous versus homogeneous group composition based on prior computer experience. The experiment is a 3 x 2 x 2 mixed factorial design, with group composition based on prior computer experience (experienced; new; mixed) and learning method (individualistic; collaborative learning) as the between-participant variables and time of measurement (pre-training; post-training) as the within-participant variable. Outcome measures will focus on: 1) knowledge and skill acquisition in Internet health information searching; and 2) health literacy.