Project Impact

Students who participated in the HackHealth Program were asked to choose a health-related topic that was of interest to them personally. While some students chose a topic close to home, such as researching diabetes for themselves or a family member, others were more abstract, choosing to research stress or dyslexia. Students were asked where they might look for information in order to complete their research. Most of the students began with a google search, usually with a natural language query such as “how to cure migraines” or “how do you catch AIDS”. Some students began their search with the school library website, or with the resources available from the National Library of Medicine.

After completing the program, both Phenomenal and Ariana rated doctors as the most trustworthy source of health information, when they had each rated family members as most trustworthy at the beginning of the program.

Phenomenal said: Right now I’m researching a topic, but it’s mainly for my mom... my mom discovered that she was pregnant, so then I started doing research about it and telling her what she should eat and what she should not do, and she said that she’s gonna try not to do all that stuff and eat really healthy...

Jennifer says, Learning about health and learning about things that you taught that were important… health issues are important, but you don’t get that interested in them until you – someone has it [a health issue] or you are really interested in it.

One of the challenges for HackHealth participants lies in recognizing that not all internet sources are trustworthy. The challenge is even greater because these students may be lulled by experienced credibility and by media credibility. That is, a website that ‘looks right’ may seem more trustworthy to a tween. If a tween has heard her older sister speak of an information source, such as a television show, in an admiring way, she may take everything she learns from that source at face value, without more evaluation. Researchers worked with the participants to develop a heuristic for evaluating sources, beginning with a checklist and then discussing the kinds of circumstances where a checklist didn’t apply.

Chocolate Rain says, "now when I research things, I stop and think about what sources did it cite… should I trust it, should I check and see if other sites have the same information."

Tiny describes a trustworthy website: It really gave you the person who wrote it, it was by a doctor, the year it came out, and it was just giving you a lot of information about the sickle cell. It gave you information that you didn't ask about in the question.

Some of the HackHealth participants had a difficult time choosing their topics of interest, specifically because these tweens don’t necessarily think of themselves as having health issues. Once they found their topics, however, it was encouraging to watch the improvement in their health-related literacy. The students seemed to realize that health-related information they found on the web might not always be accurate, and also to feel empowered about evaluating that information for themselves.

Self-efficacy is an essential element of health information literacy. Someone who has a health information need must feel confident of his or her ability to find and potentially use that information. Researchers were excited to hear the HackHealth program participants making plans to do research on new health topics and to use their newly acquired knowledge for some particular purpose, such as to help a family member or to make changes to their health behaviors that would help to lead to better outcomes.

I want to know [more about the causes of bone pain] because I want to help my mom -- Jennifer. I don't feel comfortable in my body, so I gotta do something with it, and it helps me want to research and then motivate myself from that research that I did -- Chocolate Rain. [W]e got really interested and searched and the more interested you got, the more information you get. So it was important for not [only] yourself, but [also] your family members and anyone else who might have this -- Phenomenal.

Due to the short time spent with the HackHealth participants, health outcomes are perhaps the most difficult part of the program in which to see improvement. However, it was clear that the participants left the program with a stronger sense of the importance of health behavior.

Captain: Because, health is like a topic, it's like not a topic I pay attention a lot of attention to, but after I took the program… I know I can go, cause I know that when I'm not healthy, I can search up what things to help me feel better, or go to more resources like my family members, or nurses or librarians and ask them [for] information, information about what's happening to me…

Cherry Marshmallow: …Seeing the presentations [by the other students in HackHealth] kinda scared me, because like, they're all bad things, so I guess I can still control it, but if we're talking about like eating health[y], like obesity and stuff, … it's not like I'm gonna stop eating all the fatty food and all the candy, but I'm definitely gonna make sure I don't get fat… It's made me like have more respect for people who have health disorders…

Related to self-efficacy is the way that HackHealth participants seemed to think of themselves as researchers who could find what they needed to know about any topic.

To increase participant interest in the STEM disciplines was one of the stated goals of the HackHealth program. However, it was again difficult to see improvement given the short time span of the program. Nonetheless, it was heartening to see students begin to think of themselves as investigators.

Comments from Participants

Star Wars: I see, me pursuing like… I'm gonna be doing more stuff on cardiology and, hopefully, … college, like I have to like biology, I'm gonna do biology and stuff like that. Like I'm gonna put it in my courses and everything…

Tiny: I would like to be a nurse… I feel like nurses have a very important role other than just doctors.

Lamont: So you guys – this club – it motivated me to take science a better way because at first, I really didn’t like science or care about it. But then I realized, this is my life, so it’s basically learning about myself, so that’s what encouraged me.

Jessica: Some people didn’t want to join the HackHealth program because they thought it was like another class. I thought it would be the same thing, but it’s like another family, and you get to express yourself, and you talk about things that are going on in your life, and questions. It’s entertaining, but you still learn.

Parent: You can see the enthusiasm in the children with this program. They don’t feel obligated to have to do this – this is something that they want to do. They volunteered for it and they take pride in that. You can see that it’s a good program, just because when they come home, they’re satisfied with it.