A profile of inactive information seekers on influenza prevention: a survey of health care workers in Central Kentucky

Agency and liminality during the COVID-19 pandemic: Why information literacy cannot fix vaccine hesitancy

This article employs a sociological and dialogical information perspective to identify what shape information literacy practice takes for people who are hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine. An information perspective places information and people’s relations with information at the centre of the inquiry. The study carried out 14 semi-structured interviews with UK adults who had not yet received or taken up their invitation to have the COVID-19 vaccine. Outcomes of this study suggest that information literacy practices related to vaccine hesitancy emerged through the liminal space and in relation to agentic performance, which was catalysed through engagement with experiential, corporeal and social information. This study has implications for the teaching of information literacy, in particular, the idea that being informed is an affirmative action that will automatically empower learners to make appropriate choices.

Do previously held vaccine attitudes dictate the extent and influence of vaccine information-seeking behavior during pregnancy?

Pregnancy represents a high information need state, where uncertainty around medical intervention is common. As such, the pertussis vaccination given during pregnancy presents a unique opportunity to study the interaction between vaccine attitudes and vaccine information-seeking behavior.

We surveyed a sample of pregnant women (N = 182) during early pregnancy and again during late pregnancy. The variables of vaccine confidence and risk perception of vaccination during pregnancy were measured across two questionnaires. Additional variables of decision conflict and intention to vaccinate were recorded during early pregnancy, while vaccine information-seeking behavior and vaccine uptake were recorded during late pregnancy.

88.8% of participants reported seeking additional information about the pertussis vaccine during pregnancy. Women that had a lower confidence in vaccination (p = .004) and those that saw the risk of pertussis disease as high compared to the risk of side effects from the pertussis vaccination during pregnancy (p = .004) spent significantly more time seeking information about the pertussis vaccination.

Women’s perception of risk related to vaccination during pregnancy significantly changed throughout the pregnancy (t(182) = 4.685 p< .001), with women perceiving the risk of pertussis disease higher as compared to the risk of side effects from the vaccine as the pregnancy progresses.

The strength and influence of information found through seeking was predicted by intention to vaccinate (p = .011). As such, we suggest that intention to vaccinate during early pregnancy plays a role in whether the information found through seeking influences women towards or away from vaccination.

Analysis of College Students' Personal Health Information Activities: Online Survey

BACKGROUND

With abundant personal health information at hand, individuals are faced with a critical challenge in evaluating the informational value of health care records to keep useful information and discard that which is determined useless. Young, healthy college students who were previously dependents of adult parents or caregivers are less likely to be concerned with disease management. Personal health information management (PHIM) is a special case of personal information management (PIM) that is associated with multiple interactions among varying stakeholders and systems. However, there has been limited evidence to understand informational or behavioral underpinning of the college students' PHIM activities, which can influence their health in general throughout their lifetime.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate demographic and academic profiles of college students with relevance to PHIM activities. Next, we sought to construct major PHIM-related activity components and perceptions among college students. Finally, we sought to discover major factors predicting core PHIM activities among college students we sampled.

METHODS

A Web survey was administered to collect responses about PHIM behaviors and perceptions among college students from the University of Kentucky from January through March 2017. A total of 1408 college students were included in the analysis. PHIM perceptions, demographics, and academic variations were used as independent variables to predict diverse PHIM activities using a principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical regression analyses (SPSS v.24, IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA).

RESULTS

Majority of the participants were female (956/1408, 67.90%), and the age distribution of this population included an adequate representation of college students of all ages. The most preferred health information resources were family (612/1408, 43.47%), health care professionals (366/1408, 26.00%), friends (27/1408, 1.91%), and the internet (157/1408, 11.15%). Organizational or curatorial activities such as Arranging, Labeling, Categorizing, and Discarding were rated low (average=3.21, average=3.02, average=2.52, and average=2.42, respectively). The PCA results suggested 3 components from perception factors labeled as follows: Assistance (alpha=.85), Awareness (alpha=.716), and Difficulty (alpha=.558). Overall, the Demographics and Academics variables were not significant in predicting dependent variables such as Labeling, Categorizing, Health Education Materials, and Discarding, whereas they were significant for other outcome variables such as Sharing, Collecting, Knowing, Insurance Information, Using, and Owning.

CONCLUSIONS

College years are a significant time for students to learn decision-making skills for maintaining information, a key aspect of health records, as well as for educators to provide appropriate educational and decision aids in the environment of learning as independent adults. Our study will contribute to better understand knowledge about specific skills and perceptions for college students' practice of effective PHIM throughout their lives.

Becoming business critical: Knowledge for Healthcare

Significant progress has been made in implementing Knowledge for Healthcare. This editorial reports the central contribution of effective partnerships and the involvement of librarians and knowledge specialists in this work. There are compelling business priorities. Key elements of work-streams on demonstrating impact, workforce development and streamlining are indicated, along with areas of growing importance - knowledge management, embedded roles and health information for the public and patients. Knowledge, and the skills to help people to use it, are business critical.