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Exploring the Relationship Between Health Literacy and Media Use Among Youth.

While health literacy has been widely studied, there is a lack of research concerning health literacy and youth, and almost no research has examined the relationship between health literacy and media use. Has Internet access improved health literacy skills, and are youth with limited health literacy at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding and using the information they find? Jennifer Manganello, Ph.D., will explore these ideas, present data from a teen health literacy study, and discuss ideas for future research.

Learn more about Dr. Manganello

About the Speaker

Jennifer Manganello is an Associate Professor at the University at Albany School of Public Health. She is a health communication researcher who incorporates theories, concepts, and methods from both the fields of public health and communication. Her research focuses on health literacy as well as the effects of media on attitudes, behaviors, and policies that put young people (children, adolescents, young adults) at risk for negative health outcomes. Her research has examined topics related to injury, aggression, sex, nutrition, and children’s media use, and she has applied a broad range of skills and methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods) to conduct both primary data collection and secondary data analysis. Before starting at UAlbany, Dr. Manganello was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication, Annenberg Public Policy Center and earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.