Electronic health literacy and dietary behaviors in Taiwanese college students: Cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Given the recognized importance of preventing poor dietary behaviors during adolescence, we need a better understanding of college students’ dietary behaviors. Studies have found that individual factors and electronic health (eHealth) literacy may affect one’s dietary behaviors. However, few studies have fully investigated the effect of the three levels of eHealth literacy (functional, interactive, and critical) and the interactive effect of individual factors (eg, gender, monthly expenses, and frequency of cooking) and the three levels of eHealth literacy on the four aspects of dietary behaviors (consumer health, balanced diet, regular eating habits, and unhealthy food intake). Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether individual differences and higher eHealth literacy are associated with more positive dietary behaviors and less unhealthy dietary intake. Methods: The eHealth Literacy Scale is a 12-item instrument designed to measure college students’ functional, interactive, and critical eHealth literacy. The Dietary Behaviors Scale is a 14-item instrument developed to measure four aspects of dietary behaviors of college students. A questionnaire was administered to collect background information about participants’ gender, monthly expenses, and frequency of cooking. A national sample of college students was surveyed, and 813 responses were obtained. We conducted a multiple regression analysis to examine the association among individual factors, eHealth literacy, and dietary behaviors. Results: This study found that functional eHealth literacy was negatively related to unhealthy food intake (beta=−.11; P=.01), and interactive eHealth literacy was positively related to balanced diet (beta=.25; P