• Health literacy
• How to make health information easier to understand
• Health literate organizations
• Health information seeking
• Dissemination of health information
• Digital technology and health (eHealth)
• Social media and health
• Media effects on youth

Jennifer is a professor in the School of Public Health at the University at Albany and Faculty Fellow at CTG UAlbany since 2022.

Jennifer is a health communication scholar who uses theories, concepts, and methods from the fields of public health and communication. Her research focuses on health literacy as well as the effects of media on attitudes, behaviors, and policies that put young people (children, adolescents, young adults) at risk for negative health outcomes.

Her main area of expertise is health communication. Her work in this area has primarily focused on the effects of media and/or technology use on health attitudes, knowledge, and behavior, health information seeking among youth and parents, and identifying best practices for the dissemination of health information to the general public, including through news and social media. It has also involved a focus on health literacy. Much of Jennifer’s work focuses on children, adolescents, young adults and parents, and she often seeks to include groups impacted by health disparities. She also examines the use of digital technology for health information and health interventions, also known as eHealth.

Patil U., Kostareva U., Hadley M., Manganello J., Okan O., Dadaczynski K., Massey .P, Agner J., & Sentell T. (2021). Health literacy, digital health literacy, and COVID-19 pandemic attitudes and behaviors in U.S. college students: Implications for interventions. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(6), 3301.

Manganello J., Penta S., & Whalen E. (2021 online). Risk communication and infodemics: Challenges and opportunities for local health departments. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

McAdams R., Roberts K., Klein E., Manganello J., & McKenzie L. (2021). Using social media to disseminate injury prevention content: Is a picture worth a thousand words? Health Behavior Research, 4(2).

Laestadius L., Wang Y., Taleb Z. B., Kalan M. E., Cho Y., & Manganello J. (2020). Online national health agency mask guidance for the public in light of COVID-19: Content analysis. JMIR Public Health & Surveillance, 6(2), e19501.

Manganello J., DeVellis R., Davis T., & Schottler-Thal C. (2015). Development of the Health Literacy Assessment Scale for Adolescents (HAS-A). Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 8(3), 172-184.