Poster Board Number: 166
Title: Go FIGure: Health Literacy and Freshmen Interest Groups
Objective: As first-year students transition to college life, they are faced with rethinking their role in their own health. Finding accurate health information, navigating a complex health care system, and improving communication with health care providers are all part of being a wise health care consumer. On a large university campus, connecting with freshman interest groups (FIGs) provides a useful small-group setting to discuss health literacy.
Methods: A fifty-minute session was developed and co-taught by a health sciences librarian and the director for health promotion at the student health center. Topics included evaluating health information on the web, utilizing MedlinePlus, deciphering prescription labels, and accessing services at the student health center. During the session, students entered the student health center number into their cell phones.
Results: In the pilot semester, 14 FIGs requested the specialized session, and more than 250 first-year students attended health literacy discussions. The instructors received positive informal feedback about the session.
Conclusions: While the session itself was broad in scope, it provided students with a starting point for thinking about their rights and responsibilities in terms of their own health. Also, the health literacy sessions allowed the health sciences library to reach a group not normally served by the library and to create collaborative ties to the student health center.
Authors: Katherine M. Anderson, Specialized Services Librarian, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library; Terry N. Wilson, Director, Health Promotion and Wellness, Student Health Center; University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
