TY - JOUR

T1 - Digital Health Literacy and Information-Seeking Behavior among University College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

T2 - A Cross-Sectional Study from Denmark

AU - Bak, Carsten K.

AU - Krammer, Jeanne

AU - Dadaczynski, Kevin

AU - Orkan, Okan

AU - von Seelen, Jesper

AU - Prinds, Christina

AU - Søbjerg, Lene M.

AU - Klakk, Heidi

N1 - This work was supported by the UC SYD Denmark and received no external funding.

PY - 2022/3/19

Y1 - 2022/3/19

N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic and the concomitant infodemic have emphasized the importance of digital health literacy (DHL) to global public health research and practice. The aim of this study was to examine information-seeking behavior, the ability to find, understand and deal with health information among university college students in Denmark and/in addition we wanted to examine the impact of their close social network on students’ ability to find and understand health information. This research was carried out as part of the COVID-HL university student survey by using a uniform questionnaire consisting of elaborated scales. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey conducted at University College South during 4 weeks in April and May 2020. To capture DHL, four subscales of the DHL instrument were adapted to the pandemic context. A total of 59.9% of the students have sufficient DHL—most students find it rather easy to find information and are satisfied with the information they find on the internet. However, some (28.1%) students find it difficult to judge the quality and reliability of the information. 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 often use social media for health information. Students with sufficient DHL more often share health information and less often ask for support in their network.

AB - The COVID-19 pandemic and the concomitant infodemic have emphasized the importance of digital health literacy (DHL) to global public health research and practice. The aim of this study was to examine information-seeking behavior, the ability to find, understand and deal with health information among university college students in Denmark and/in addition we wanted to examine the impact of their close social network on students’ ability to find and understand health information. This research was carried out as part of the COVID-HL university student survey by using a uniform questionnaire consisting of elaborated scales. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey conducted at University College South during 4 weeks in April and May 2020. To capture DHL, four subscales of the DHL instrument were adapted to the pandemic context. A total of 59.9% of the students have sufficient DHL—most students find it rather easy to find information and are satisfied with the information they find on the internet. However, some (28.1%) students find it difficult to judge the quality and reliability of the information. 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 often use social media for health information. Students with sufficient DHL more often share health information and less often ask for support in their network.

KW - COVID-19

KW - Denmark

KW - Digital health literacy

KW - Information seeking

KW - Social network

KW - University college students

KW - Health sciences

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126483848&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/06fc1c4a-0d07-3e9b-b7d8-fc535fc3c6fb/

U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19063676

DO - 10.3390/ijerph19063676

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 35329363

AN - SCOPUS:85126483848

VL - 19

JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

SN - 1661-7827

IS - 6

M1 - 3676

ER -