Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop a health education program in order to foster health information literacy among junior high school students. Four first year classes of a junior high school attached to a national university were divided into two experimental groups (80 students in total) and two control groups (80 students in total). The two experimental groups received a lesson about selecting correct health information. An assessment sheet about health information was developed and used in the experimental groups. A scale to assess the students’ critical thinking ability about the health information was developed and employed to evaluate the lessons. The post-test score on average of the experimental groups was higher than the pre-test average. The post-test scores in experimental groups showed greater increace the control groups. Over 70% of students in the experimental group used the health information assessment sheet effectively. This result demonstrates the effectiveness of the lesson for fostering health information literacy in health education classes among first year junior high school students.
