TY - JOUR

T1 - Digital Health Literacy and Information-Seeking in the Era of COVID-19

T2 - Gender Differences Emerged from a Florentine University Experience

AU - Bonaccorsi, Guglielmo

AU - Gallinoro, Veronica

AU - Guida, Andrea

AU - Morittu, Chiara

AU - Ferro Allodola, Valerio

AU - Lastrucci, Vieri

AU - Zanobini, Patrizio

AU - Okan, Orkan

AU - Dadaczynski, Kevin

AU - Lorini, Chiara

N1 - Funding Information: The study was supported by the University of Florence. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.

PY - 2023/2/1

Y1 - 2023/2/1

N2 - Gender appears to be a strong predictor of online health information-seeking behaviour (OHISB), which is related to Digital Health Literacy (DHL). Gender differences in OHISB have been studied in different countries with different results, but no studies have investigated gender-specific OHISB among University students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to investigate any gender differences in OHISB in the period between the first and second waves of the pandemic in Italian university students. A questionnaire developed by the global COVID-HL network, including existing and adapted validated scales and self-developed scales, was administered to 2996 University students in Florence. Gender differences were tested using the χ2 test or the Mann–Whitney U test. Male students reported a higher score in DHL than females (p < 0.001). However, female students seek COVID-19 information more often on different sources (for themselves and other people), on various topics, consider various aspects of information quality to be “very important’’ (p < 0.05) and are more likely to be “often dissatisfied’’ or ”partly satisfied’’ with information (p < 0.001). Our study confirmed gender as an important dimension to explain students’ OHISB differences, which could help institutions promote gender-specific education programmes and provide gender-oriented health information.

AB - Gender appears to be a strong predictor of online health information-seeking behaviour (OHISB), which is related to Digital Health Literacy (DHL). Gender differences in OHISB have been studied in different countries with different results, but no studies have investigated gender-specific OHISB among University students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to investigate any gender differences in OHISB in the period between the first and second waves of the pandemic in Italian university students. A questionnaire developed by the global COVID-HL network, including existing and adapted validated scales and self-developed scales, was administered to 2996 University students in Florence. Gender differences were tested using the χ2 test or the Mann–Whitney U test. Male students reported a higher score in DHL than females (p < 0.001). However, female students seek COVID-19 information more often on different sources (for themselves and other people), on various topics, consider various aspects of information quality to be “very important’’ (p < 0.05) and are more likely to be “often dissatisfied’’ or ”partly satisfied’’ with information (p < 0.001). Our study confirmed gender as an important dimension to explain students’ OHISB differences, which could help institutions promote gender-specific education programmes and provide gender-oriented health information.

KW - COVID-19

KW - Digital Health Literacy

KW - gender differences

KW - online health information seeking behaviour

KW - Health sciences

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147885861&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/02cb07a8-8c4e-39a1-ad17-1a1fde22dd88/

U2 - 10.3390/ijerph20032611

DO - 10.3390/ijerph20032611

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 36767976

AN - SCOPUS:85147885861

VL - 20

JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

SN - 1661-7827

IS - 3

M1 - 2611

ER -