the health information adolescent’s needs
The study focused on understanding the health information adolescent’s needs and the ways through which they satisfied the particular requirements. Understanding how adolescents seek information is essential for nurses because adolescents have become a rapidly growing population in the United States. Additionally, the adolescent population encompasses diverse racial and or ethnic groups than the general population. Therefore, understanding the way of seeking information among the youth is significantly essential because African Americans and Latinos suffer from elevating disparities in health; hence, they desperately require interventions of health behavior. Also, adolescence involves a life stage in which future health behaviors are implemented. For adolescents to achieve the expected health behaviors, designing interventions that target their health information needs would be critical. Mobile health technology, which would require the services of nurses, includes the most promising response for this case since adolescents are frequent users of social networking, mobile technology, and internet use.
The study purposes on coming up with an intervention that aids adolescents get a relevant and reliable mode of seeking information concerning their health information. The growing and deeply mixed-up population in ethnicity and race require intervention since it involves struggling with critical health issues-which is a crucial determinant of future health; hence, the purpose of the study.
The research question for this study would be, how do adolescents use technology to acquire health information, and what technology development would be critical such that adolescents find it useful and also decrease health disparities? The question is broad enough because it touches the youth in general while getting into depth to understand the possible intervention that would meet the health needs of the adolescents as well the extent to which it would reduce health disparities. Moreover, the targeted population covers the most significant percentage of the general population. Lastly, the study focuses on providing health information seeking technology on all adolescents regardless of an individual’s racial or ethnic group.
The random method of obtaining subjects was used in this study. The process was appropriate because items were selected randomly without biasness. Additionally, the technique does not allow for foreplay since nothing can be pre-determined with a random selection of subjects. As a result, the provided information was firsthand and uncorrupted. Also, the group would elicit as much information as possible. Six focus groups, each accommodating three to eight participants, were used to complete the study. The sample was adequate since the subjects gave as much information as possible and within a short amount of time. Using fewer or more subjects would be time-consuming and probably with repetitive details; hence, some form of biasness would result. The moderators would easily manage the group of samples because it involved an average number of subjects. Convened focus groups also help in gathering massive amounts of information and in a short time, hence, adequate.
The setting under which the data was collected appropriate because subjects would have sufficient time to respond to the questions provided. The environment included a senior author who was the moderator and one of the research staff who recorded notes for the collected information. The setting was serene, and participants of the study had an ample environment in which they could answer questions relevantly and without fear. Such a small group of interviewers is ideal for correct and relevant answers from subjects. Moreover, the focus groups were convened, and no information would be disclosed whatsoever. This created confidence in subjects and made them feel part of the study. For a setting to be conducive and appropriate, one should consider the comfort of subjects for the provision of adequate information.
The data collection procedures utilized for this study included interviews. The interviews were carried out on six focus groups in which the participants were asked to answer the provided questions in an open-ended manner. The questions were presented in the form of questionnaires, and individuals answered them to the best of their knowledge. The interview form of data collection procedure deemed appropriate for this study because with the open-ended questions elicit information would be collected, and participants would be freer answering questions. Also, the interview included people from various geographical areas; thus, multiple races and ethnic groups were catered for reducing the possibilities of biasness.
The study began protecting the rights of the subjects by convening. Additionally, any information both responses and personally provided by a question was only shared within the particular focus group the subject participated in. Finally, no subject would appear in any presentations or publications resulting from the study- hence, the steps provided for complete security for all participants. That way, the participants were free and comfortable to give as much information as possible with the confidence that no one would know if they provided any information. The data was saturated because the information provided covered all aspects of the study’s purpose.
Krikelas’s “Information Seeking Behavior” framework was used to analyze the data. The analysis design matches the qualitative study in that it focuses on activities that begin from a problem or situation where need emerges and passing through different activities to fulfill the requirement.
The study states the objective of the study, which is focusing on providing a forum for seeking health information for the entire adolescent population in the United States regardless of the various races and ethnic groups.
The study is limited in that it does not provide the research question for the study, and also it does state the composition and age of the participants in the focus groups.