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

Abstract

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, students have trouble coping with the available health information regarding the coronavirus in their daily lives because of misinformation. Objectives: The 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. Methods: To 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. Analysis: The collected data was analyzed using both quantitative (SPSS) and qualitative (NVivo 10) methods. Results: Search 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”. Conclusion: Using 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.