Evaluating The Internet-Based Electronic Health Literacy Among Students of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Introduction: Electronic health literacy is the skill to seek, find, understand and evaluate health information from electronic information sources and utilize this information to determine or resolve specific health problems. This study investigates the level of electronic health literacy in students of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive research, 430 students were selected randomly.115 students were from the Faculty of Public Health, 110 from the Faculty of Nursing, 93 from Faculty of Medicineand 112 from the Faculty of Paramedicine were selected and interviwed during six months from August 2018 to March 2019. The data collection tool was the Persian version of the EHEALS questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS-V. 20. Result: The findings indicated that the level of electronic literacy in 45.1% of students was moderate, in 31.6% was good and in 9.1% students was very good. 12.3% of the students had poor health literacy and 1.9% had a very poor level of electronic health literacy (P=0.270). Conclusion: To improve the level of electronic health literacy of students of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences we recommend informing them about having access to online, comprehensive and validated online health information, and training them on web health information