Teens and Technology Transforming Acne Treatment

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Adolescent Health
• Digital Literacy

Background:

• The internet is a primary source of health information for adolescents.
• Concerns exist regarding the accuracy and credibility of online health content.
• Understanding students' perceptions of online health information is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess high school students' belief in using evidence-based health websites.
• To identify popular health information topics and search engines among students.
• To evaluate students' trust in the credibility of online health information.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey was administered to high school students.
• The anonymous survey collected data on perceived source credibility, topics of interest, and search engine usage.
• Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance were used for analysis.

Main Results:

• 82% of students believed they used evidence-based health sources online.
• Skin and acne were the most frequently researched health topics.
• Google was the most common search engine (80%), followed by WebMD Search (38%) and Wikipedia (50%).

Conclusions:

• The majority of students express confidence in the online health information they find.
• A significant concern is that less than half of students utilize websites with professional health oversight.
• There is a need to improve adolescents' ability to critically evaluate online health resources.