title: Health knowledge among the millennial generation.
abstract: The Millennial Generation, also known as Generation Y, is the demographic cohort following Generation X, and is generally regarded to be composed of those individuals born between 1980 and 2000. They are the first to grow up in an environment where health-related information is widely available by internet, TV and other electronic media, yet we know very little about the scope of their health knowledge. This study was undertaken to quantify two domains of clinically relevant health knowledge: factual content and ability to solve health related questions (application) in nine clinically related medical areas. Study subjects correctly answered, on average, 75% of health application questions but only 54% of health content questions. Since students were better able to correctly answer questions dealing with applications compared to those on factual content contemporary US high school students may not use traditional hierarchical learning models in acquisition of their health knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lloyd
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: Michele L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Shaffer
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: Stetter
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Christy
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Widome
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Repke
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Weitekamp
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Eslinger
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: Sandra S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Bargainnier
authors.affiliation: Departments of Public Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine of the Penn State College of Medicine , Hershey, PA ; Department of Kinesiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development, University Park , PA, USA.
authors.forename: Ian M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Paul
keywords: health education; knowledge acquisition