1522Health Literacy and Public Awareness and Its Effect on COVID-19 Prevention: A Systematic Review

Abstract

BackgroundConsidering the current COVID-19 pandemic due to SARS-CoV-2, it is necessary to estimate the role of health awareness, severity of disease impact on coronavirus patients and follow the approved disease preventive practices to improve the quality of health. This study aims to provide a systematic literature review on the health literacy awareness among the general population about SARS-CoV-2 and its impact on COVID-19 prevention.MethodsWe performed an extensive literature search on health literacy among public related to COVID-19. Relevant articles from PubMed and Cochrane databases were extracted and evaluated by applying appropriate key search terms to obtain the information published from January 2020 to April 2021. We included data based on observational and questionnaire-based studies and gathered information on participant's characteristics, health literacy and awareness, fear of COVID-19, and health-related behaviours.ResultsThe most eligible studies were identified from the available literature (N = 39) searched through using appropriate key terms. The literature analysis showed that social media and interacting personally with a community of friends are the primary sources that spread pandemic information related COVID-19 pandemic and its severity.ConclusionGlobally, social media is a major platform for disseminating and promoting health literacy about COVID-19 among the general population. It is suggestable to bring a more robust approach for a larger population who have educational disparity for better prevention of this communicable disease.Key MessageA rapid health awareness among the general public unaware of the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic is imperative and also to encourage COVID appropriate behaviors for better control of COVID-19.