Decision Support System for Youth Well-Being

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The development of comprehensive, accurate, and low-cost systems to monitor the well being of children and adolescents is a fundamental prerequisite to achieving a healthy society. We will design and create an Internet based decision-support system that incorporates data from the Oregon Healthy Teens and other public domain data sources related to the health and well being of youth in Lane County Oregon. The system will have five components: (a) a Model of Youth Development; (b) Displays of Healthy/Harmful Behavior Status for communities and counties; (c) Displays of Risk and Protective Factors; (c) a Database of Available Programs; (d) a Display of Current Intervention/Maintenance Programs; and (e) a Display of Targeted Behaviors. We will revise and modify this system using evaluation feedback from an expert panel and representatives of potential users, then develop a prototype (alpha version) interactive website suitable for use by decision makers at the school, community, and county level for assessing and intervening to increase youth well-being. We will evaluate the decision support system by recruiting a set of representative decision makers in three communities. This will include assessment of their ability to use the system, pattern of use, perceived utility, and consumer satisfaction.