User Needs

Early childhood allergy prevention: awareness, information-seeking behaviour, and information needs among different parent groups

Expectant parents look for health information for their child for various reasons, e.g. to find information on medical examinations or explore familial predispositions and respective risks for a certain disease. Aspects of health literacy (HL), information behaviour, and the availability and quality of information can significantly influence parents' ability to seek and use information. Research findings show that parents need sufficient HL, not least to filter high-quality information. For the development and implementation of good information and information channels,  knowledge about the information behaviour and preferences of parents is needed, but evidence on these aspects is hardly available so far.

Study objectives

The objectives of this project are to explore:

  1. parental awareness, knowledge about and relevance of information specific to early childhood allergy prevention (ECAP) and handling of changing recommendations, 
  2. needs and preferences regarding information search and content,
  3. approaches to information searches
  4. the influence of HL on information and prevention behaviour, and
  5. possible socio-cultural aspects.

The planning and implementation of this sub-project is being developed in close cooperation with and on the basis of the preliminary results of other sub-projects. With regard to target group perspectives, this subproject cooperates closely with  "Health Professionals". There is also a connection with "Epidemiology“ regarding the influence of parental HL on information behaviour.

 

Health information in times of a pandemic: health literacy, information processing and trust-based behaviour among different groups of parents

The Covid19 pandemic has far-reaching consequences for the health and everyday lives of many people. Parents of young children not only have to take care of themselves, but also bear responsibility for their families. (Digital) health information has the potential to play an important and comprehensive role, for example in the implementation of protective measures, which is particularly challenging for children, or in the general reorganisation of everyday routines and social contacts. Finding, understanding, and using health information, as well as the availability and quality of information, can have a significant impact on parents' ability to use information. For the development and implementation of good information and information channels, knowledge about parents' information behaviour and preferences is needed, on which, however, only a few robust findings exist so far.

 

Study objectives

This sub-project investigates:

1) information behaviour and procedures in the search for information and the assessment of its quality,

2) how to deal with “infodemic” and misinformation,

3) the role of trust or mistrust in information and the factors influencing this,

4) reasons that influence the acceptance or rejection of rules, behaviours, proposals, etc., and

5) medium and long-term challenges specific to dealing with children