Digital Health Competencies of Pupils. A multi-perspective preliminary study (DiGKS)
Representative study findings indicate that more than half (54%) of the German population (15 years and older) has only limited health literacy. Particularly affected are (young) people in special circumstances (e.g. with low socio-economic status). Despite the rapidly growing wealth of information on the internet and the high availability and use of internet-based media in adolescence, there are hardly any scientific findings on digital health literacy among adolescents. Therefore, the research project aims to survey the general and digital health literacy of young people and to evaluate it according to social background characteristics.
Duration: 01.04.2019 until 31.03.2020
Funding body: Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts (HMWK)
Project management:
- Prof. Dr. Kevin Dadaczynski, Fulda University of Applied Sciences
- Prof. Dr. Katharina Rathmann, Fulda University of Applied Sciences
- Prof. Dr. Michael May, RhineMain University of Applied Sciences
Staff members:
- Julia Schricker (M.A. Rehabilitation Sciences), Fulda University of Applied Sciences
- Stefanie Kruse (Dipl. Soz.-Päd., M.A.), RhineMain University of Applied Sciences
External cooperation partners:
- Dieter Schulenberg, Hessian Association for Health Promotion e.V.
- Prof. Dr. Eike Quilling, University of Applied Sciences for Health Bochum
Duration: 01.04.2019 until 31.03.2020
The project is designed as a joint project of the Fulda University of Applied Sciences and the RhineMain University of Applied Sciences and consists of a quantitative and a qualitative survey part.
The aim of the quantitative part of the survey is to generate findings for the first time on the development of digital health literacy among 14- to 15-year-old pupils and to establish associations between digital health literacy and social conditions as well as health-related target variables. Furthermore, in the qualitative research part, current activities for the promotion of digital health literacy as well as promoting and inhibiting framework conditions at Hessian schools are to be determined.
In cooperation with the Hessische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Gesundheitsförderung e.V. (Hessian Association for Health Promotion), the results of both surveys will be linked and transferred into further steps and projects for science and practice.
- How high is the proportion of young people with limited digital health literacy?
- What are the connections between social conditions and digital health literacy?
- What are the individual and organisational framework conditions and needs from the perspective of school staff?
The project is implemented by combining qualitative and quantitative empirical social research methods. In the quantitative arm, students of all school types in Hesse will be surveyed in writing at the locations Fulda and Wiesbaden using a standardised survey instrument. In addition to digital health literacy, media use, information-seeking behaviour and health-related indicators are recorded.
Interviews with teachers are the subject of the qualitative arm. Here, the experiences with information offers as well as the subjective ideas of the promotion of digital health literacy among adolescents at the classroom and school level are recorded. In this context, the media availability and use of the school staff as well as the technical equipment of the respective school are taken into account.
