Research Update

Alesha Hall, CADCOM and Meg Bruening, PA NEN

In the last issue of Food for Thought, the research committee continued its series of articles on the effectiveness of different approaches of delivering nutrition education. Karin Sargrad from Drexel University introduced innovative multimedia (IMM) as a method for combining nutrition education and technology. The previous month we looked at the possibility of text messaging for nutrition education. This month, we focus our attention to the Internet and the wonderful world of “blogging.”

Blogging
One of the more popular and readily accessible forums to share information is the “blog.” A blog (which is a shortened term for “web log”) is a tool people use to communicate to each other; blogs can be about anything, from personal experience, to news, to activism, and even education. The Pew Internet Project, an organization that studies the use of the internet, has found that 39 percent (57 million American adults) use or read blogs. Of the total internet users, 79 percent of Americans use the internet to find health information.

Even more compelling are the young adult statistics. According to the Children’s Partnership, those ages 18-25 who classify themselves as lower class are more likely to visit a clinic or a doctor because of information they obtain online. Furthermore, those young people living in lower-income online households are also slightly more likely to visit websites or bulletin boards (i.e. blogs) where they can express their opinion than those in higher income online households (43 percent compared to 36 percent). Thirty-nine percent of youth are that seek health information from the web have changed their personal behavior because of information obtained online.

As nutrition educators it would be a lost opportunity to not take advantage of this technology to ensure that people are making positive behavioral changes. And as Tarrant Figlio presented on August 29 th at the PA NEN/CPDA Nutrition on Demand workshop, it’s surprisingly easy to start a blog. Starting your own blog is as easy as starting an internet-based email account. And like internet-based email, several web-based companies have free or low-cost platforms.

It is estimated that eight out of ten bloggers (82 percent) will still be blogging a year from now. Think about the opportunities for maintaining educational interest from 8 out of 10 of your participants for more than a year. What kinds of healthy eating behavioral changes could be made?

To learn more about blogs, and access a how-to-guide, please visit Tarrant Figlio’s Nutrition on Demand “Communication and Community Online Is for Everyone
—Not Just Techies” presentation resources at:
http://fycs.ifas.ufl.edu/Conference/panen.htm

 

References

Fox, S., and A. Lenhart. A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers, Pew Internet and American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/186/report_display.asp, July 2006.

Blogs and Health Care, Pew Internet and American Life Project, http://www.pewinternet.org/, Presentation to the National Association of Children’s Hospitals, March 2006.

Measuring DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY for AMERICA’S CHILDREN: Where We Stand and Where We Go From Here, The Children’s Partnership, http://www.childrenspartnership.org, 2005.