Conference Agenda

Abstract

Introduction: Health literacy has become essential to access, evaluate and use health information. Efforts to raise its level among the population are significant, but vary depending on the country, with libraries and education institutions being involved. Starting with 2009, a series of studies were conducted in Romania regarding information literacy, health literacy and the library involvement in teaching the necessary skills, which could empower people to be active in decisions influencing their life and well-being.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyse findings of different research conducted in the past years and provide an overview of the health literacy level among patients in Romania and the challenges they face when navigating the healthcare system.

Methodology: Research synthesis is used in this study to uncover new insights and create a better understanding of the current state of health literacy among patients in Romania and future needs for its improvement.

Outcomes: Research conducted over the years among various types of patients in Romania, especially surgical and cancer patients, has highlighted a moderate level of health literacy. Proposals and initiatives for the development and implementation of various information literacy programmes by medical university libraries and isolated actions by some public libraries have proved these institutions are interested and open for a greater involvement in raising health literacy among their communities.

Conclusion: Health literacy has proved to play a significant role in the patients’ experience during their disease, leading to a more active engagement in the decision-making process and the entire care process. Until now, libraries’ involvement in health literacy programmes can be considered small, or modest, sometimes even invisible. However, there is potential for a better collaboration between libraries in Romania which could contribute to an improvement of health literacy level.

References

Madge, O.-L., Marincaș, A. M., Daha, C., & Simion, L. (2023). Health information seeking behaviour and decision making by patients undergoing breast cancer surgery: A qualitative study. Health Information & Libraries Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir. 12480

Naccarella L, & Horwood J. (2021). Public libraries as health literate multi-purpose workspaces for improving health literacy. Health Promot J Austral., 32(S1), 29–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.437

Naughton J, Booth K, Elliott P, Evans M, Simões M, & Wilson S. (2021). Health literacy: The role of NHS library and knowledge services. Health Info Libr J., 38(2), 150-154. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12371

Sumanu, S. A., & Madge, O.-L. (2023). Health Literacy and its Impact on Cancer Care for Patients and Caregivers in Romania. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML), 12(3), 381-402. https://www.qqml-journal.net/index.php/qqml/article/view/834

Vassilakaki, E., & Moniarou-Papaconstaninou, V. (2023). Librarians’ support in improving health literacy: A systematic literature review. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 55(2), 500-514. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006221093794

The majority of cancer patients seek information actively (Elkefi & Matthews, 2024) which is a crucial coping mechanism for cancer patients: they gain a sense of control, a better understanding of their condition, and find support resources (Petersen et al., 2021). The preferences of information sources may change over time as the patient is diagnosed and treated. In the initial diagnosis phase health care professionals are often the preferred information source whereas during recovery the experiences of other cancer patients can be useful (Jensen et al., 2022). Using social media posts, this study aims to explore the posts shared on social media and how other patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals could benefit from these discussions.

Posts on X were identified using a set of keywords related to the experiences of cancer patients. The keywords are identified through a qualitative study (Jensen et al., 2022) and are carefully selected to ensure a comprehensive capture of relevant posts. The posts were then analyzed using Continuous Bag of Words (CBOW) models (Church, 2017) and topic modeling (Blei, 2012), to unveil topics and experiences users were exchanging information and resources about.

Our preliminary results show that users touched upon a wide range of relevant topics including early detection, side effects, as well as practical suggestions. Moreover, we also found that despite an informed and targeted search, some wild cards and non-relevant discussions were picked up (e.g. water signs). Figure 1 provides a visual representation of our CBOW model. In conclusion, this study supports earlier findings that social media can be overwhelming even when looking for targeted information. However, we also find that applying methodological filters can provide cancer patients, relatives and health professionals with firsthand experiences and practical advice in the recovery phase.

References

Blei, D. M. (2012). Probabilistic topic models. Communications of the ACM, 55(4), 77–84.

Church, K. W. (2017). Word2Vec. Natural Language Engineering, 23(1), 155–162.

Elkefi, S., & Matthews, A. K. (2024). Exploring Health Information–Seeking Behavior and Information Source Preferences Among a Diverse Sample of Cancer Survivors: Implications for Patient Education [Article]. Journal of Cancer Education, 39(6), 650-662.

Jensen, J. G., Petersen, E., & Frandsen, T. F. (2022). Seeking and avoiding information: a qualitative study of the information behaviour of cancer patients. Information Research, 27.

Petersen, E., Jensen, J. G., & Frandsen, T. F. (2021). Information seeking for coping with cancer: a systematic review [Article]. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 73(6), 885-903.

This paper reports on a project that aimed to develop partnerships with marginalised communities in Sheffield to co-produce research priorities for Health Literacy (HL). HL refers to the capacity people have to obtain, process and understand information related to their health and use it to make informed choices, reduce risks and improve their quality of life (Martzoukou & Abdi, 2017). However, low HL is a severe problem in marginalised communities and leads to a range of undesirable outcomes, including poor health and reduced use of preventative healthcare (Stormacq et al., 2020). Community-led interventions to develop HL are empowering and co-creating health information and can help address structural and systemic barriers to health (De Wit et al., 2018). This project engaged members of the Roma, Yemeni and Somali communities in Sheffield, UK. These communities have low levels of English, many are recent immigrants to the UK and are generally recognised as marginalised. We worked with community groups to host workshops focused on exploring perceptions of trustworthy health information sources, and the barriers experienced in gathering suitable health information. Follow-up workshops focused on potential research foci, methods, and how community members could contribute to data collection and analysis. The workshops featured participatory image-based activities that were designed to be accessible to all.

Despite the unique linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the communities, a number of common themes emerged. The community centre is a trusted social source of health information, and community centre staff play a valuable role in interpreting and mediating health information and services. Participants reported a range of systemic and structural barriers to accessing health information and communicating with health professionals, particularly related to language and the use of interpreters. Digital exclusion was a barrier to engaging with “digital first” services such as the UK’s National Health Service app, and many participants lacked broadband access. Health information was sought and shared in social networks, and “expert” community members with better English provided HL support to others. Despite these challenges, participants demonstrated criticality in evaluating health information.

Community members expressed a strong desire to be involved in the design and delivery of future HL research. Research priorities focused on building interactive and critical HL (Nutbeam & Lloyd, 2021), such as improving information exchange between communities and the health service, community involvement in training health staff, and co-creating health information resources, for example, videos and leaflets. There was a preference for qualitative research methods, and for community members to be trained as researchers to collect and analyse data. In conclusion, we reflect on the valuable role played by information intermediaries (Buchanan et al. 2019) in this information landscape and the need for health service providers to partner with communities to improve information communication, reduce organisational complexity and address social determinants of health (Nutbeam & Lloyd 2021).

References

Buchanan, S., Jardine, C., & Ruthven, I. (2019). Information behaviors in disadvantaged and dependent circumstances and the role of information intermediaries [https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24110]. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 70(2), 117-129. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24110

De Wit, L., Fenenga, C., Giammarchi, C., Di Furia, L., Hutter, I., De Winter, A., & Meijering, L. (2018). Community-based initiatives improving critical health literacy: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence. BMC Public Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4570-7

Martzoukou, K., & Abdi, E. S. (2017). Towards an everyday life information literacy mind-set: a review of literature. Journal of Documentation, 73(4), 634-665. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940010305270

Nutbeam, D., & Lloyd, J. E. (2021). Understanding and Responding to Health Literacy as a Social Determinant of Health. Annual review of public health, 42(1), 159-173. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-090419-102529

Stormacq, C., Wosinski, J., Boillat, E., & Van Den Broucke, S. (2020). Effects of health literacy interventions on health-related outcomes in socioeconomically disadvantaged adults living in the community: a systematic review. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 18(7), 1389-1469. https://doi.org/10.11124/jbisrir-d-18-00023

The constant development of new areas of law, the complexity of legal language, the specialised nature of legal information, and the dynamic legal environment pose new demands on Croatian legal scholars, law students, and legal practitioners in understanding, interpreting, and applying the law. In parallel, the development of ICT and digital technologies, the rapid pace of legal information changes, and the emergence and use of AI tools in legal research present additional challenges for law students. They face an enormous volume of legal information and the rapid spread of misinformation, which can create uncertainty, confusion, and inaccuracies in finding and applying the necessary and credible legal information, potentially leading to misunderstandings or incorrect applications of the law. Additionally, studying and researching in such an environment can instil trust in technology, leading to the belief that information obtained using, for instance, AI tools is authoritative and accurate without engaging in critical evaluation of the legal information (Callister, 2024). Therefore, during their education, law students must learn to identify, select, and use trustful legal sources (Kim-Prieto & Kahvecioğlu, 2014). Sources of information are typically chosen and used based on their perceived reliability and trustworthiness (Savolainen, 2007). Trust in information sources is embodied in cognitive authority, which refers to the sources considered competent and trustworthy (Wilson, 1983; Rieh, 2010). While previous studies have examined young people’s trust in information sources more broadly (Karim & Widen, 2023), little empirical research has been done on how law students specifically engage with, evaluate, and construct the cognitive authority of legal information sources in digital and AI-driven environments. This study provides a novel contribution to the field of legal information literacy by addressing an existing research gap in understanding Croatian law students’ trust in legal information sources. Situated within the ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016), the presented study investigates law students’ knowledge practices in digital and AI information environments guided by the following research questions: (1) What knowledge practices do law students use in the context of research assignments? (2) How do law students construct the cognitive authority they attach to the information sources they use? The study employed a qualitative research method, conducting in-depth interviews and a think-aloud method with students as part of a case study at Faculty of Law in Rijeka. The research sample was intentional and included 12 students. The interviews were founded on underlying phenomenography interviews, as this approach allows a comprehensive and holistic description of a particular phenomenon. Preliminary results reveal that students engage with various information sources, assigning them varying levels of trust. The results indicate students' cautious approach to law AI-based sources acceptance, echoing Callister’s (2024) warning about whether AI can be a trusted, credible, and reliable legal source. Students primarily consult AI for informational purposes and idea development but do not consider it a cognitive authority; instead, they prioritise legal databases. This research contributes to a better understanding of cognitive authority and how it is constructed in the digital and AI information environment.

References

ACLR. (2016). Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Retrieved January 31, 2025 from https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Callister, P. D. (2024, August 16). Generative AI and Finding the Law. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.28311.14240

Kim-Prieto, D., & Kahvecioğlu, M. K. (2014). Three faces of information literacy in legal studies: research instruction and law student information literacy standards in the American common law, British common law, and Turkish civilian legal traditions. International Journal of Legal Information, 42(2), 293–302.

Karim, M., & Widen, G. (2023). Strategies for information source selection: A focus group study on young people in Europe. Journal of Information Science, 01655515231193847.

Rieh, S.Y. (2010). Credibility and cognitive authority of information. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. 1, 1, 1337–1344

Savolainen, R. (2007). Media credibility and cognitive authority. The case of seeking orienting information. Information Research, 12, 3, paper 319. [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/12-3/paper319.html]

Wilson, P. (1983). Second-hand knowledge: an inquiry into cognitive authority. Westport; London: Greenwood Press.

Cybercrime targeting older adults has escalated in today's digital society. Digital literacy is crucial for reducing the risks of online frauds and harmful online experiences. This study investigated the relationship between digital media repertoires and digital literacy in online safety among Thai older adults aged 60 and above (n = 7,677). Drawing from nationally representative survey data, we employed logistic and ordered logit regression analyses to investigate whether different and more diverse digital media repertoires were associated with higher digital literacy in online safety and to identify which digital platforms are most effective in enhancing safety literacy. The findings revealed significant variation in digital literacy across different media repertoires, with a greater diversity of media use positively associated with higher safety scores. Productivity applications emerged as the strongest predictor of higher digital literacy in online safety, followed by social network services. Implications for digital literacy initiatives are discussed.