A community engagement program to improve awareness for credible online health information

The volume of online health information available makes it difficult to navigate and check its validity and reliability. A community-based MedlinePlus training program was developed to improve participants' ability to access credible online health information.

The program was a public-private partnership between a managed care organization and four local public libraries. A total of eight programs were held between October and November 2017. Each program had a 30-minute cooking demonstration followed by a 30-minute training on access to and navigation of the MedlinePlus website. Program participants were Medicaid beneficiaries, dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and community members from a Pennsylvania county (n=39). A pre-and post-training questionnaire was administered to assess participants' knowledge and practice, and their ability to access health information on the MedlinePlus website. We conducted a retrospective analysis of the data collected during the MedlinePlus trainings. Results from the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test indicated no statistically significant change in participants' ability to access information (Z= -1.41, p=0.16) after attending the program.

Although the median pre- to post-program responses improved from 'incorrect' to 'correct,' the number of programs held, and low attendance might be the reason for non-significant results. Participants reported that the program was informative, the website was comprehensive and user-friendly, and they were impressed by the healthy and inexpensive meal preparation from discount store-bought food. Holding MedlinePlus training programs in conjunction with a cooking program and collaborating with local public libraries might be a promising format that needs additional research.