Jose Mari Pastor González, Carmen Peñafiel Sáiz and Idoia Camacho Markina.

1. Jose Mari Pastor González
Carmen Peñafiel Saiz
Idoia Camacho Markina

2.  During the last years information about health
issues has acquired special relevance.
 Internet has open a new era.
 e-Health: Emerging field in the intersection of
medical informatics, public health and
business, referring to health services and
information delivered through the Internet and
related technologies (Gunther Eysenbach)

3.  Young people’s familiarity with new
communication technologies has promoted the
access of this population to information
available in Internet.
 In Spain 23% of the users who search health
information in Internet are between 15-24
years.
 The creators of web pages with health
information for the youth are aware of their
responsibility.
 This study considers this trend and explores
the reasons that stimulate the creation of these
types of webs and analyses the objectives of

4.  This research aims to explore the nature of
the health web sites focused on teenagers
and young adults.
 It will help to define the code of conduct:
“Codes of conduct are defined as sets of
quality criteria that provide a list of
recommendations for the development and
content of websites” (Petra Wilson).

5.  The hypothesis are three:
 1) On-line health information plays a key role in
health education for young and teenager
people.
 2) Communication paradigm of health
information has evolved from an unidirectional
model to a bidirectional one.
 3) Lack of resources and the structure of the
sites hinder the objective of institutions to
reach in a more effective way the users that
consume health information.

6.  Six interviews with people responsible for
health websites belonging to public or private
institutions and to media. They were taken from a
preliminary list
 Why? They stand out because of their educational
work in the area of health information for young
people.

7.  Selected websites
 Public Institutions:
 Basque Government
 Government of Navarre
 Private Institutions:
 Edex (social and educational organization)
 SEMA (Spanish Society for Adolescent Medicine)
 Media:
 ‘El País’ (newspaper)
 Teinteresa.es (website of general
information)

8.  The next step of the methodology was to prepare
the questionnaire of the interviews
 We agreed upon a total of 58 questions
 The interviews had common questions for all
persons, but were carried out individually
 The questions were divided into four sections in
order to analyze the websites:
 1)Purpose
 2) Criteria
 3) Contents
 4) Operation


9.  4.1 Purpose
 The webs must communicate good information
about healthy habits but without paternalist
perspective (Emilio Navarro, Teinteresa.com)
 Provide health information which is interesting,
easy to understand and which help young
people to make decisions about habits and
behaviours (Antonio Redondo,
www.adolescenciasema.org).
 Education in life skills: Give priority to
educational focus without moralizing (Juan
Carlos Melero, www.edex.es)

10.  4.2 Criteria
 Information for teens and young people must be
communicated by means of a “gradual
process” , taking into account the physical and
psychological and emotional development of
the adolescents. (Emilio de Benito, El País )
 Three specific topics for young people: drugs,
both legal and illegal, eating disorders and
risks associated with unprotected sexuality (
www.edex.es)

11.  4.3 Contents
 The most important health sectors for this
population segment are three: reproductive
health, emotional health and the acquisition of
habits (El País ). The newspaper updates
the information every day.
 The Government of Navarre doesn’t renew the
page since 2012. The economic situation
slowed down this task and future projects.
 The Basque Government doesn’t update every
day the information for young people in the
health section.

12.  4.4 Operation
 The managers of these webs are aware of the
importance of new technologies. Therefore they
use Twitter, Facebook and others
communication tools.
 In despite of this, some of them are sceptical
about the real influence of health websites for
young people: “I doubt that young people
search for specific health web pages. They go
to Google” (De Benito, El País ).
 Attractive support can be secondary if the web
fails to communicate with people (Melero,
Edex).

13.  1) Young people’s access and familiarity with
Internet make the network the dominant mode
for institutions to reach this segment of
population.
 2) The feedback breaks the traditional pattern
of vertical communication and is more relevant
than ever in the transmission of health
information to young people, but it should be
improved.
 3) There is a constant need to update
communication in order to reach that segment
of population. In same cases that aim remains
at a theoretical level. The lack of means

14.  That is all.
 Now, it is your turn, your time to ask
questions about this research.
 Thank you very much for your attention.