The article, What Health Information Do Consumers Seek Online, reminds us that women, seniors and caregivers are the top seekers of online health information. Baby Center identifies that women make most of the decisions for their family’s health care and often go online to look up information in advance of medical appointments. Enspektos, a marketing company, reported that 1/3 of mom’s look up health information daily or every few days, and of mom with apps, 1/2 downloaded a health app.

The NN/LM’s Health Literacy Manual is quoted in the article:

For seniors, the health information they seek is more specialized. The National Network of Libraries of Medicine said, for example, that “older adults use more medical services and acquire more chronic illnesses than other population segments.” Yet the American Academy of Family Physicians found that half of the US seniors it surveyed in March 2012 felt there wasn’t a single online resource where they could find highly credible health information, including information about prescription drugs for the elderly (14%) and preventative medical care for seniors (13%).

More seniors need to learn about National Library of Medicine sites, especially MedlinePlus and NIHSeniorHealth. The National Library of Medicine is a source of highly credible health information that seniors can trust. The information on MedlinePlus must meet Quality Guidelines. The quote from the AAFP may be also related to seniors comfort level with the internet in general. It is also important to note that there are differences within the senior generation, as “boomers” are often more internet savvy than their parents in the “matures” generation.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine plays a key role in teaching consumers how to find and use National Library of Medicine resources. Librarians are essential to help seniors increase their comfort level with internet searching, learn how to critically evaluate online resources, and become familiar with sources of highly credible health information like MedlinePlus. The NIHSeniorHealth includes a Trainer Toolkit. The Toolkit for Trainers provides free, easy-to-use training materials to help older adults find reliable, up-to-date online health information on their own. The NN/LM offers classes to help librarians connect older adults with health information. These include: Healthy Aging at your Libary: Connecting Older Adults to Health Information, and Senior Moments: Health Information and Older Adults.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project is an excellent source exploring the health information seeking behaviors of Americans. Take a look at their latest report, Health Online 2013.

The Library of Congress FEDLINK invites you to participate in a survey that explores the roles library and information science (LIS) professionals are undertaking to support clinical care. This survey will also ask you about the partnerships you have created and work within to support clinical care and its practitioners.

This is the first of three studies that the Library of Congress FEDLINK is conducting to learn about the ways LIS professionals are involved with health information. Future surveys will focus on LIS professionals who support public health and their contributions to reducing the cost of care and other cost efficiencies for their organizations.

We hope you will help us by completing this survey. It will take approximately 30-45 minutes of your time.

To complete the survey please go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FEDLINKHITCC
The survey will be open until February 22, 2013.

The results will be used to promote the emerging roles LIS professionals have taken on. Additionally, we plan to use the findings to inform our education, training, and programming.

If you have any questions, you may contact Jamie Stevenson, at jstev@loc.gov or 202-707-4852.

Best regards,

Jamie

Jamie Stevenson, MPH
Principal Investigator
Library of Congress | FEDLINK

The Pew Internet and American Life Project’s latest report, “Tracking for Health” explores how people track health indicators or symptoms, such as weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, headaches or sleep patterns. The findings show that tracking health is a powerful way to take charge of managing one’s health. Key findings of the report include:

• Seven in ten US adults track a health indicator for themselves or for a loved one.
• People living with chronic conditions are significantly more likely to track a health indicator or symptom.
• Tracking on paper, spreadsheet, mobile device – or just “in their heads”
• One in two trackers say they keep track of progress “in their heads”
• One in three trackers say they track the data on paper, like in a notebook or journal.
• One in five trackers say they use some form of technology to track their health data.
• People with more serious health concerns take their tracking more seriously
• Half of all trackers update their record or notes only occasionally and most do not share their data with anyone else.
• Tracking can affect someone’s overall approach to health.
• Tracking has had a more significant impact on people living with chronic conditions.

The report identifies that trackers are more likely to ask questions at their health visits. Encouraging patients to jot down their concerns and questions before health visits is a standard health literacy technique. The AHRQ’s Questions are the Answer, NSPF AskMe3, and Health Literacy Missouri’s Clear Conversations are three different approaches to the same technique. What if providers gave patients mini-notebooks with a mini-pencil to track their health — the way the dentist gives you a toothbrush and dental floss? And, also recommended the top tracking apps and sites?

The report identifies the percentage of adults who track the following:

• 60% track weight, diet, or exercise routine
• 33% track any other health indicators like blood pressure, sleep patterns, headaches, etc
• 12% track any health indicators for a loved one
• 69% total who track any health indicator for themselves or others

Monitoring diet and exercise is recognized as a common characteristic of individuals who lost weight and kept it off over time. (http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/keepingitoff.html) Hopefully, the results of this report will encourage more people (myself included!) to take better care of our health and start journaling in notebook, website, or app! Whether it is a notebook, a sheet of paper, a website, or app, the report shows – tracking helps! It has the potential to affect your overall approach to maintaining your health or the health of a loved one.

What does this report mean for librarians? Let’s add more resources to our collections to help patients track their health. Purchase consumer health books that include journals/trackers. Link to resources like MedlinePlus Health Check Tools and identify the best health apps and mobile sites for “trackers.” Hospital librarians can share the top journal and tracking resources with patient educators. I wondered why the report showed such limited use of the web for tracking, when so many people are using the web for health information. Results showed only one percent used a website tracking tool. Perhaps lack of trust with the web discourages online health tracking. Librarians can share health check sites with patients that protect their confidentiality and privacy.

Or, perhaps people just don’t know where to find them. MedlinePlus is a great source for free online health trackers. Take a look at the MedlinePlus Health Check Tools page, which include the trackers listed below and many others:

•  Supertracker. My Foods. My Fitness. My Health.  [USDA]
• Supertracker, Food-A-Pedia [USDA]
• Stress-O-Meter [CDC/Body and Mind]
• Calorie Counter [Cancer.gov]
• Exercise Counts [Cancer.gov]

My thanks to Susannah Fox for sharing this report with me and my colleague Myrna Morales for connecting me with Susannah.

-Michelle Eberle, Consumer Health Information Coordinator

Monday, March 25, 2013
Boston, MA

“When your life’s work has meaning, it’s not a job, it’s a passion. HxD 2013 was designed for you. The you with an insatiable curiosity. The you that’s been a patient, or has taken care of one and knows we must do better. The you that got into this work to make a difference.
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Speakers include: Jane McGonigal, Chief Creative Officer, SuperBetter; Gretchen Rubin, Author of The Happiness Project; David Sobel, Medical Director of Patient Education and Health Promotion for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California and Jamie Heywood, Cofounder and Chairman of PatientsLikeMe.

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