Whether young people care about their health and pay attention to public health campaigns is at the heart of a study being carried out by Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) in collaboration with other researchers in Qatar and the US.
The health communication study, “Qatari adolescents: How do they use digital technologies for health information and health monitoring?”, which received a $300,000 grant from the Qatar National Research Fund in March, examines how Qatari youth aged 13 to 18 years acquire and evaluate information about health issues of all kinds.
The study probes into what is known about young people’s specific health concerns and conditions, as well as how they use technology to acquire and share such information.
Aimed at discovering how future public information campaigns can better reach youth beyond typical media sources and school settings, the study is being carried out by Dr Klaus Schoenbach, NU-Q’s associate dean for research, an internationally known media researcher; and Dr Ellen Wartella, an expert on children’s media and health, who is a Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani professor of communication, psychology and education at NU’s Evanston, Illinois campus in the US.
They are joined by Dr Salma Mawfek Khaled, a survey researcher at Qatar University’s Social and Economic Survey Research Institute where she is an assistant professor, and Dr Paul Amuna, who heads the research section of Qatar’s Primary Health Care Corporation and will serve as consultant.
“We are evaluating the channels adolescents use to find answers for their health concerns in order to find what works best. We hope that information will improve the options available to them,” said Dr Schoenbach, who will lead the research team.
Qatar’s youth are subject to some of the highest rates of obesity risk in the world. In addition, they are exposed to shisha smoking and environmental restrictions such as extreme weather conditions.
“The threshold for physical activity is much higher in this part of the world than in most countries, so we’re trying to communicate the best ways to educate and train using digital sources,” Dr Schoenbach said.
The research project will be completed in 2017.