Health Information Literacy Outreach: Improving Health Literacy and Access to Reliable Health Information in Rural Oxford County Maine

The goal of this health information outreach project was to increase access to health information and improve health literacy in rural Maine. A health literacy curriculum was developed and piloted by teachers and librarians in local schools. Among students who completed the pre-survey (N = 121), 18% said they were confident in their ability to evaluate Web-based health information before participating in the curriculum compared with 48% after their participation. Sixty-five percent said on the post-survey that they were confident in their ability to share what they learned with others in the community. These findings indicate that teachers and librarians have an important role to play in improving health information literacy.