TY - JOUR

T1 - Facing the growing COVID-19 infodemic

T2 - Digital health literacy and information-seeking behaviour of university students in Slovenia

AU - Vrdelja, Mitja

AU - Vrbovšek, Sanja

AU - Klopčič, Vito

AU - Dadaczynski, Kevin

AU - Okan, Orkan

N1 - The study presented in this article is part of the project “Raising Health Literacy in Slovenia”, implemented by the National Institute of Public Health and the Ministry of Health within the Operational Programme for the Implementation of EU Cohesion Policy in the 2014–2020 programming period. The project is co-financed by the European Union from the European Social Fund (80%) and the Republic of Slovenia (20%).

PY - 2021/8/12

Y1 - 2021/8/12

N2 - The entire world is faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also accompanied by an infodemic. This refers to the rapid spread of (accurate and false) information, mainly through internet usage increasing. Digital health literacy (DHL) is therefore important for addressing challenges related to online health information and services, as well as for navigation through the complex information landscape with huge amounts of different (and conflicting) information about COVID-19. The aim of this study is to examine the level of DHL in relation to COVID-19 in Slovenian university students and to determine online information-seeking behaviour in order to plan and prepare effective communication interventions for this sub-population. A cross-sectional survey, administered by an online questionnaire, was conducted to collect data on DHL. A total of 3621 students participated, of whom 70% were female and the average age was 22.65 years (SD = 4.65). Bivariate analyses were performed to assess the association of key characteristics with DHL. Overall, the results show that the level of DHL among students is sufficient. Most difficulties were reported in assessing the reliability of information (n = 1484, 49.3%). Approximately one third of the students (n = 847, 27.9%) reported having problems in finding information of their interest, and somewhat more (n = 900, 29.6%) reported difficulties in making a selection among all the information found. Students with a sufficient level of DHL are more likely to seek information through search engines and websites of official institutions, while students with a limited level of DHL more frequently reported using social media for health information searches. It is necessary to establish interventions for a systematic lift of the DHL and health literacy (HL) of all population groups.

AB - The entire world is faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also accompanied by an infodemic. This refers to the rapid spread of (accurate and false) information, mainly through internet usage increasing. Digital health literacy (DHL) is therefore important for addressing challenges related to online health information and services, as well as for navigation through the complex information landscape with huge amounts of different (and conflicting) information about COVID-19. The aim of this study is to examine the level of DHL in relation to COVID-19 in Slovenian university students and to determine online information-seeking behaviour in order to plan and prepare effective communication interventions for this sub-population. A cross-sectional survey, administered by an online questionnaire, was conducted to collect data on DHL. A total of 3621 students participated, of whom 70% were female and the average age was 22.65 years (SD = 4.65). Bivariate analyses were performed to assess the association of key characteristics with DHL. Overall, the results show that the level of DHL among students is sufficient. Most difficulties were reported in assessing the reliability of information (n = 1484, 49.3%). Approximately one third of the students (n = 847, 27.9%) reported having problems in finding information of their interest, and somewhat more (n = 900, 29.6%) reported difficulties in making a selection among all the information found. Students with a sufficient level of DHL are more likely to seek information through search engines and websites of official institutions, while students with a limited level of DHL more frequently reported using social media for health information searches. It is necessary to establish interventions for a systematic lift of the DHL and health literacy (HL) of all population groups.

KW - Communication digital behaviours

KW - COVID-19

KW - Digital health literacy

KW - Health literacy

KW - Infodemic

KW - Information-seeking

KW - Slovenia

KW - Students

KW - Health sciences

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112255712&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/ijerph18168507

DO - 10.3390/ijerph18168507

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 34444255

AN - SCOPUS:85112255712

VL - 18

JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

SN - 1661-7827

IS - 16

M1 - 8507

ER -