Dataset Information

Adolescents as agents of healthful change through scientific literacy development: A school-university partnership program in New Zealand.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Scientific literacy development is widely emphasized as the overarching goal of science education. It encompasses development of understanding of the nature of science as well as knowledge, attitudes, and values that contribute to empowering adolescents to engage with and make evidence-based decisions about socioscientific issues. Scientific literacy development is enhanced when learning is contextualized in exploration of socioscientific issues.Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) associated with a combination of obesity and adverse environmental exposures are examples of pressing health-related SSIs facing the world today. Evidence emerging from the field of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) has identified adolescence as a key life-phase where population-wide education-based interventions that empower teens to engage in science-based health-promoting behaviors could significantly change the course of this epidemic. To achieve this, learning resources that support scientific and health literacy development contextualized in issues linking NCD risk and DOHaD are required.The Healthy Start to Life Education for Adolescents Project is a school-university partnership program designed to support scientific and health literacy development, knowledge translation, and participant-led actions relating to NCD risk prevention. This study assesses the impact of program participation in a cohort of 11-14-year-olds in New Zealand. Evaluation comprised analysis of individually matched questionnaires, pre-, 3 months, and 12 months post-intervention (n = 201) and 6 months post-intervention interviews (n = 40).

Results

Positive engagement in science learning occurred. Positive changes in health-related awareness and attitudes 3 months post-intervention were sustained to 12 months. Adolescents reporting pre-intervention dietary behaviors associated with increased obesity risk reported sustained positive behavior changes (p < .001). Qualitative evidence revealed that these changes resulted from application of scientific and health literacy. This has the potential to improve long-term health outcomes for adolescents and their future offspring. Furthermore, feedback from parents demonstrated that adolescents became science communicators within their families.

Conclusions

We demonstrated that contextualized learning promoting scientific and health literacy development facilitated knowledge translation. This allowed adolescents to decide if, and how, to use scientific evidence in relation to their current and future wellbeing. Exploration of the transferability of scientific and health literacy capabilities, and impacts on future health would enhance understanding of the value of the intervention.

SUBMITTER: Bay JL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6310384 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Adolescents as agents of healthful change through scientific literacy development: A school-university partnership program in New Zealand.

Bay Jacquie L JL Vickers Mark H MH Mora Helen A HA Sloboda Deborah M DM Morton Susan M SM

International journal of STEM education 20170906 1

<h4>Background</h4>Scientific literacy development is widely emphasized as the overarching goal of science education. It encompasses development of understanding of the nature of science as well as knowledge, attitudes, and values that contribute to empowering adolescents to engage with and make evidence-based decisions about socioscientific issues. Scientific literacy development is enhanced when learning is contextualized in exploration of socioscientific issues.Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) ...[more]

PMID: 30631671

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Project description:RationaleAdolescent pregnancy in Lao PDR is the highest in Southeast Asia. It leads to negative health and social consequences in young people. It is anticipated that this problem is partly caused by limited sexual and reproductive health literacy (SRHL), leading to poor sexual and reproductive health (SRH) decisions. Based on the concept of health literacy, SRHL goes beyond knowledge and behavior and is the self-perceived ability of an individual to access the needed information, understand the information, appraise and apply the information into informed decision making for a good way to contribute to sexual and reproductive health. It is not only knowing (knowledge) and doing (behavior), but it is the process of individual's thought on an SRH problem before taking an action. The aim of this study was to measure SRHL among school-going adolescents aged 15-19 and to determine factors associated with SRHL.MethodWe conducted a cross-sectional study in rural and urban areas of Lao PDR in 2017. Respondents completed a self-administered questionnaire with five parts: socio-demographic, personal health, SRH knowledge and behavior, SRHL, and functional literacy. We calculated the SRHL score based on the HL-EU index and used descriptive statistics to determine the score and levels. Then we used bivariate statistics and multiple linear regression to identify factors associated with SRHL in these adolescents.ResultAmong 461 respondents, 65.5% had inadequate SRHL. Scores were positively and significantly associated with several factors, including: school location (β: 3.218; p<0.001), knowledge on SRH and attending SR class in school (p:0.010-p<0.001), and functional literacy on condoms, which reflected how respondents understood the use of condoms (β: 0.871; p<0.001).ConclusionBecause most school adolescents had inadequate SRHL, comprehensive sexual education and enabling information as well as service access for adolescents are essential to ensure that adolescents can access, understand, appraise and apply good SRH knowledge in decision-making to benefit their own health.

Project description:Reach out and Read program (ROR) prepares young children to succeed in school by partnering with physicians and training them in handing out age appropriate books and to counsel parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children. Children served by ROR enter kindergarten with stronger vocabulary and language skills. The aim of this project was to improve the rate of distribution of books and physician advice about reading, to the families at each well child visit in the age range of six months to five years. This Quality Improvement (QI) project was conducted in a large inner-city pediatric residency clinic serving a lower socio-economic status under-served population. After reviewing the data from the past two years, we noticed that there was a tremendous drop in the percentage of books handed out at well visits and advice given to parents about benefits of reading aloud and self-reporting of parents reading to their child for four or more days in a week. Two goals were established: 1. To increase the rate of distributing books at every well child visit (WCV) from six months to five years of age by at least 80%. 2. To improve the rate of counseling given by the resident physicians to the families by at least 75%. A workflow was created to efficiently distribute books at well visits. A presentation about the ROR program was attended by all the physicians and residents. Reading tips in each exam room were posted to serve as a reminder for all providers and for the parents. A three question survey was collected from the families at the end of their well visit. A total of 210 surveys were collected from parents over a six month period. The percentage of handing out books at all well child visits increased from 30% to 96%. The rate of providers giving advice about the benefits of reading increased from 26% to 87%. The percentage of parents reading to their child greater than four days per week increased from 56% to 80%. Reading aloud is widely recognized as the single most important activity leading to literacy acquisition. With the above interventions, families participating in the ROR model at our clinic were more likely to read to their children, more likely to report reading aloud at bedtime, and to read aloud four or more days per week.

Dataset Information

Adolescents as agents of healthful change through scientific literacy development: A school-university partnership program in New Zealand.

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Adolescents as agents of healthful change through scientific literacy development: A school-university partnership program in New Zealand.

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