Canadian Youth and Healthcare Information on Social Media
Public Health Agency of Canada | Algonquin College | September 2022 — April 2023
What are youth perceptions of public health and which technologies do they use to access information and services related to their well-being?
Our team of five, consisting of myself and fellow Interdisciplinary Studies in Human-Centered Design students from Algonquin College, had the opportunity to collaborate with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) on a project aimed at finding effective ways to communicate with young people about public health. Over the course of several months, we conducted extensive research using both qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand youth perceptions of public health and their technology use.
There are over 7 million young people in Canada between the ages of 15 to 29, which represents 19.2% of Canada’s population. As youth have high adoption of technology, traditional media no longer holds their attention. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has expressed that traditional communication channels (e.g. newspapers, magazines, TV, etc.) and also their government website are ineffective at connecting with youth. PHAC aims to discover effective communication methods with youth regarding healthcare information. Our problem statement is therefore: What are youth perceptions of public health and which technologies do they use to access information and services related to their well-being?
During the first two months, we conducted secondary research and looked up relevant information resources. This step allowed us to gain a broader understanding of the existing literature on youth perceptions of public health and their technology use.
Next, we conducted a survey using Google Surveys that remained active for 2 weeks to find out the pattern of Canadian youth searching for mental health information on the Internet. We designed the survey questions to elicit information on the social media platforms the youth use to access health information, the type of information they search for, and the preferred format.
In addition to the survey, we performed 9 one-on-one, hour-long semi-structured interviews to learn more about the patterns of searching for information about mental health on the Internet. The interviews allowed us to explore the youth’s experiences and perspectives more in-depth.
We also carried out interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs) in the field of public health and communication with youth. These interviews helped us gather ideas and information from experts in the field, and we used this information to support our analysis.
Finally, we analyzed the data we collected from the survey, interviews, and SME interviews. We coded the qualitative and quantitative data to identify patterns and themes that emerged from the data. This analysis allowed us to answer our sub-questions and draw conclusions that would inform our recommendations.
Overall, our methodology was a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods that allowed us to gather rich data on youth perceptions of public health and their technology use.
Key Insights:
• When young people experience mental health issues, they frequently turn to family and friends for emotional support. Still, when it comes to getting accurate information and practical answers, they frequently rely on the internet or mental health specialists.
• Youth mistrust social media for mental health information due to privacy and information legitimacy concerns.
• Youth trust social media for up-to-date information and, websites or search engines for expert information.
• Positive content combined with impactful designs may be very attractive for mental health-related ads, and placing them on Google, Instagram, or public transport can increase visibility.
• Information on mental health is best provided in the form of skimmable short articles, videos, and other content. They all should be kept brief.
• PHAC website is considered trustworthy but confusing and boring, for its complicated structure and limited content format.
Key Recommendations:
Turn PHAC’s website into an appealing platform to meet youth needs. Start by simplifying the navigation structure on the PHAC website. Put the information into categories and subcategories that make sense to the young users to establish a clear hierarchy. Make sure the search bar returns all relevant content results on the website.
Create engaging and informative health content that is easy for youth to access and share with peers. Keep it simple, and short. Provide additional information if required, but first, answer their needs in their attention span. To appeal to their visual sense, include images and short video clips in articles.
Better reach out to youth. Youth doesn’t know about PHAC’s existence. Make PHAC known through seminars, collaborations with organizations or institutions, and google ads.
A better understanding of youth needs and preferences. Recruit youth. Youth is in a state of constant change and transformation. The product that appeals to them today may have the opposite effect tomorrow. By recruiting youth testers, you can get feedback on what works and what doesn’t work on your website from a user’s perspective. Youth can also provide input on what topics and themes are relevant to them and what type of content they prefer to consume. They can additionally help to create content such as blog posts, videos, and social media updates that resonate with their peers.
Our team is currently working on improving the prototype in accordance with the usability test results and the given feedback. Please keep watching this page, as we move towards working on designs that will embody our proposals.
