This summer I am working on a project titled MYHealth: Training the Next Generation of Health Researchers. MYHealth wishes to bridge the gap between youth opinion, the community, and policymakers. Through text message surveys, adolescents aged 14-24 are able to express their thoughts and feelings on an array of different public health issues. Past questionnaires have been centered around social media use, COVID-19, eating disorders, and even healthcare quality.
The goal of MYHealth is to use youth opinion to better understand and inform adolescent, and ultimately population health. Incorporating youth voices into the policies that directly affect that population is important, and allows for the most successful health interventions and programs possible to be implemented. Prioritizing good health early also strengthens future population health, a looming public health issue. Personally, I see the necessity of this research, as I myself experience the health related concerns many of the respondents do, and have seen significant gaps in research concerning youth opinion on a number of public health issues.
In my research, I have chosen to focus on health education in schools, and youth’s perceptions on the subject. As of right now, I am coding the qualitative data collected through the MyVoice text message surveys. My job is to note major themes that emerge from the data. The final goal is to present my findings in a manner I see fit, which is currently a manuscript. Research ethics play a large role in my project. MYHealth research participants are minors, and we are handling that data that has to remain confidential. Any identifiable information has to be protected, and that informs what data I would use as quotes in my research.
My research project, MYHealth, has great potential to improve youth health, and I am really excited to be a part of that change for the better.
Ashley Durden