Sydney Health Literacy Lab

Study: social media health communication experiences of health communicators and young people during and after the #COVID19 emergency Recommendation: involve young people in future messaging to make communications consistently engaging @JulieLeask doi.org/10.1080/108107…

Many Australians encounter health information that is hard to understand, with 6 in 10 adults struggling with common health tasks. A/Prof Danielle Muscat is working to ensure health information is clear, accessible and culturally appropriate. 🔗 go.sydney.edu.au/xvpRpI

IN PRESS | @DrAlanaFisher et al's paper on #healthliteracy of ppl using unguided #iCBT for #depression/#anxiety. Despite diverse literacy challenges - esp. in often underserved groups - users engaged & benefited. 👉 doi.org/10.1080/183873… @PsyMQ @Lifespan_MQ @HealthLitLab

New paper: One-Page Patient Fact Sheets for Low Back Pain in Primary Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial What is the comparative effectiveness of 2 different fact sheets in preparing patients with low back pain for shared decision-making? wiserhealthcare.org.au/publications/o… #WiserHealthcare

Better ways to communicate health messages to young people croakey.org/better-ways-to…

"Young people expect engaging and trending content on social media, even from public health agencies. Health communicators can collaborate with influencers, use humour, memes and trends that young people use." croakey.org/better-ways-to…

Better ways to communicate health messages to young people croakey.org/better-ways-to… #publichealth

ECR category winner Brooke Nickel Social media posts about medical tests with potential for overdiagnosis. JAMA Netw Open. (2025) 8(2):e2461940. jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2025 Faculty of Medicine and Health Early to Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) Outstanding Publication Awards!

Our final 5 recommendations for social media health communication to young people are:   1️⃣ Involve young people 🤝 2️⃣ Pitch at right level ✅ 3️⃣ Capture attention fast‼️ 4️⃣ Use current social media marketing 🤠 5️⃣ Engage more with the public 🤳🏽 🔗: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

We used #ParticipatoryActionResearch methods for this project, and partnered with 3 youth co-researchers, who helped facilitate and analyse the 3 #codesign workshops with young people and health communicators.   The 5 recommendations were finalised after multiple iterations…

🎉 New PhD paper out now!   We co-designed 5 recommendations with young people and health communicators for social media health communication to young people!   Read the full article onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11… 🧵for more ⬇️

“By incorporating a variety of messaging approaches and actively involving young people in content development, public health agencies can better reach and engage young people, including during public health emergencies.” Nice work @melody_taba and team! #publichealth

Finally submitted my PhD after 3.5 years of study! Super grateful to my @HealthLitLab supervisory dream team for supporting my research on social media health communication to young people 🥹 #PhDone (more or less 🤫)

87% of posts mentioned the benefits of the tests, while only 15% mentioned potential harms. @brooke_nickel @zadro_josh @BondUniversity @Sydney_Uni theconversation.com/we-analysed-al…

Social media influencers are ‘fearmongering’ to promote health tests with limited evidence, @brooke_nickel study finds: Researchers warn of harms of overdiagnosis for generally healthy people as well as the cost of tests themselves theguardian.com/society/2025/f… via @natasha__may

SO MUCH "testing" hype now. This can do harm. Social Media Posts About Medical Tests With Potential for Overdiagnosis jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman… - 87.1% mentioned benefits - 14.7% noted harms, - 6.1% noted overdiagnosis [Read: you don't need that full-body MRI!]

Opportunity to get involved in health research! We’re looking for new members to join the Sydney Health Literacy Lab Consumer Panel (Co-SHeLL) for 2025! If you’re passionate about making health info easier to understand or have ideas on improving health systems, learn more ⬇️