Profiles of digital health literacy among university students and its association with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis

Abstract

Objective: Investigating the digital health literacy of university students can facilitate their effective acquisition of health information and adoption of appropriate protective behaviors. This study aims to explore the subtypes of digital health literacy among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic and their association with mental health outcomes. Methods: From 17 November to 14 December 2022, a stratified random sampling approach was used to conduct an online questionnaire survey on digital health literacy, fear of COVID-19, and depression status among students at Jilin University, China. A total of 1060 valid responses were obtained in the survey. Latent profile analysis identified subtypes of digital health literacy and linear regression analyses were used to examine the association of digital health literacy to the mental health outcome. Results: Three latent profiles were identified: Profile 1—low digital health literacy (n = 66, 6.23%), Profile 2—moderate digital health literacy (n = 706, 66.60%), and Profile 3—high digital health literacy (n = 288, 27.17%). Results from linear regression demonstrated a negative correlation between digital health literacy and fear of COVID-19 (B = −2.954, P < 0.001) as well as depression (B = −2.619, P < 0.001) among university students. Conclusions: This study indicated that the majority of university students exhibit a moderate level of digital health literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the study validates a negative correlation between digital health literacy and mental health among university students.