Online health information seeking and digital health literacy among information and learning resources undergraduate students

Abstract

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, students have trouble coping with the available health information regarding the coronavirus in their daily lives because of misinformation. ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to evaluate online health information seeking and digital health literacy among information and learning resources undergraduate students at Taibah University during the COVID-19 pandemic. MethodsTo investigate the primary goal, this study used a simultaneous exploratory mixed methods design. Seventeen students participated in phone interviews, and 306 were invited to complete an online survey. AnalysisThe collected data was analyzed using both quantitative (SPSS) and qualitative (NVivo 10) methods. ResultsSearch engines, social media, and YouTube were most often used by the respondents as sources to search for COVID-19-related information. COVID-19 symptoms, restrictions, and the current spread of COVID-19 were the most searched topics by the respondents. Significant and relevant differences emerged for the digital health literacy subscales “information search” and “adding self-generated content”. However, there were no significant differences in the digital health literacy subscale “determining relevance”. ConclusionUsing the internet to provide health information tailored to the needs and interests of students to seek health information online and thereby improve their health literacy.