Assessing the effects of an educational intervention to improve high school students’ ability to understand and critically appraise health claims.

Health HACC (How to Assess Claims Critically) is a four-module education program which has been developed based on key concepts considered necessary to be able to critically assess health claims (developed through an international consensus project), a qualitative study to explore students’ current understanding of health claims and decisions, and from gaps in existing interventions identified through a systematic review of studies evaluating educational interventions designed to improve these skills. When and how much: In total, the program’s duration is anticipated to be approximately 4 hours. The program is divided into 4 modules, each designed to take approximately one school lesson/period (approximately 50 minutes). The teacher can determine the most appropriate pace to move through the topics and the scheduling of the topics (such as the time between each module) using the estimated times as a guideline. The approximate time between delivery of modules will be determined by the teacher delivering the intervention. We anticipate it is likely that teachers will choose to deliver the intervention in consecutive classes. It is likely that classes will occur at least once week, and some may be more often. Module 1 introduces students to “health claims”, explaining how they can be identified and discussing the variable quality of health claims. Module 2 focuses on information and study types, which includes explaining the different types of health claims, discusses relevant concepts such as causation, conflicts of interest, bias, and how different types of scientific research are performed. Module 3 focuses on fair comparisons of health interventions, covering topics such as randomised controlled trials, placebos and how studies can make a ‘fair’ comparison of interventions. The final module, Module 4, is the culmination of the previous modules, and challenges students to critically assess health claims, think about what information would be reliable, and demonstrates how to make sense of the resulting numbers in studies and health claims. Intervention materials have been specifically designed for this study and: include a teacher guide, student booklet, and PowerPoint slides. The teacher guide includes: 1) Introduction to the Health H.A.C.C. program, its purpose, and structure; 2) learning objectives for each module; 3) for each module, the procedure and key discussion points: topics to be discussed, reference to the relevant PowerPoint slides, discussion questions and references to activities to be completed within the student handbook, and other resources needed. The student booklet contains activities specific to each module. The PowerPoint slides are provided for ease of teacher delivery and contain the learning objectives, discussion questions, and activity instructions from the Teacher Guide. Intervention provider and mode of delivery: Classroom teachers will deliver the educational intervention face-to-face to classes of students using the resources provided. Teachers will be advised that the researchers are available to be contacted at any point during the study for further information or support. The topics included within the intervention align most cogently with the concepts covered in science, health education (part of physical education) and media literacy (part of English). However, the background of the teachers involved and classrooms in which the modules are taught will be determined at the discretion of each school. The Teacher Guide contains a table that lists the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) criteria which are covered by the Health HACC program. When and how much: In total, the program’s duration is anticipated to be approximately 4 hours. The program is divided into 4 modules, each designed to take approximately one school lesson/period (approximately 50 minutes). The teacher can determine the most appropriate pace to move through the topics and the scheduling of the topics (such as the time between each module) using the estimated times as a guideline. Intervention fidelity (including student adherence to the intervention) will not be measured formally, however teachers will be interviewed at the end of the trial and asked if all topics in the materials were covered.