Digital health literacy and well-being among university students: Mediating roles of fear of COVID-19, information satisfaction, and internet information search.

Background: Digital health literacy (DHL) enables healthy decisions, improves protective behaviors and adherence to COVID-19 measures, especially during the era of the "infodemic", and enhances psychological well-being. Objective: We aimed to explore the mediating roles of fear of COVID-19, information satisfaction, and the importance of online information searching on the association between DHL and well-being. Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted among 1631 Taiwanese university students, aged 18 years and above, from June 2021 to March 2022. The collected data include sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, social status, and financial satisfaction), the importance of online information searching, information satisfaction, fear of COVID-19, DHL, and well-being. A linear regression model was utilized to investigate factors associated with well-being, followed by a pathway analysis to assess the direct and indirect relationship between DHL and well-being. Results: The scores of DHL and overall well-being were 3.1 ± 0.4 and 74.4 ± 19.7, respectively. Social status (B = 2.40, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.73-3.07, p < 0.001), DHL (B 0.29, 95% CI 0.10-0.49, p < 0.001), importance of online information searching (B = 0.78, 95% CI 0.38-1.17, p < 0.001), and information satisfaction (B = 3.59, 95% CI 2.22-4.94, p < 0.001) were positively associated with well-being, whereas higher fear of COVID-19 scores (B = -0.38, 95% CI -0.55-(-0.21), p < 0.001) and female (B = -2.99, 95% CI -5.02-0.6, p = 0.004) were associated with lower well-being, when compared with lower fear scores and male, respectively. Fear of COVID-19 (B = 0.03, 95% CI 0.016-0.04, p < 0.001), importance of online information searching (B = 0.03, 95% CI 0.01-0.05, p = 0.005), and information satisfaction (B = 0.05, 95% CI 0.023-0.067, p < 0.001) were significantly mediated the relationship between DHL and well-being. Conclusion: Higher DHL scores show direct and indirect associations with higher well-being scores. Fear, importance of online information searching, and information satisfaction significantly contributed to the association.

Association of Digital Health Literacy with Future Anxiety as Mediated by Information Satisfaction and Fear of COVID-19: A Pathway Analysis among Taiwanese Students.

Digital Health Literacy (DHL) helps online users with navigating the infodemic and co-existing conspiracy beliefs to avoid mental distress and maintain well-being. We aimed to investigate the association between DHL and future anxiety (FA); and examine the potential mediation roles of information satisfaction and fear of COVID-19 (F-CoV). A web-based cross-sectional survey was carried out among 1631 Taiwanese university students aged 18 years and above from June 2021 to March 2022. Data collected were socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age, social status, university location), information satisfaction, F-CoV, DHL and FA (using Future Dark scale). The linear regression model was used to explore factors associated with FA. The pathway analysis was further used to evaluate the direct and indirect relationship between DHL and FA. A higher score of DHL (B = -0.21; 95% CI, -0.37, -0.06; p = 0.006), and information satisfaction (B = -0.16; 95% CI, -0.24, -0.08; p < 0.001) were associated with a lower FA score, whereas a higher F-CoV score was associated with a higher FA score (B = 0.43; 95% CI, 0.36, 0.50; p < 0.001). DHL showed the direct impact (B = -0.1; 95% CI, -0.17, -0.04; p = 0.002) and indirect impact on FA as mediated by information satisfaction (B = -0.04; 95% CI, -0.06, -0.01; p = 0.002) and F-CoV (B = -0.06, 95% CI, -0.08, -0.04; p < 0.001). Strategic approaches to promote DHL, information satisfaction, lower F-CoV are suggested to reduce FA among students.