A conceptual model of the impacts of quality components of a health department website on students' health literacy at Semnan University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

BackgroundPeople with poor health literacy are those who have less knowledge about disease management and health promotion behaviors, and generally have poorer health status.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of qualitative components of the health website of Semnan University of Medical Sciences on the students’ health literacy.MethodsThis study was performed on 529 medical and allied health students in schools affiliated to Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2016–2017. A researcher-made questionnaire and standard questionnaire were used. Descriptive statistics and regression test were used by SPSS 19 to analyze data in significance level of 0.01.ResultsThe findings showed that there were poor relationships between communications in the health website and health literacy (R2=0.265, B=0.50), between understanding of concepts in the health website and health literacy (R2=0.259, B=0.38) and patient centeredness in the health website and health literacy (R2=0.241, B=0.30).ConclusionIt is concluded that the empowerment of students’ health literacy through the University Health Department website can be realized when the health department website is used as a tool for learning and the website is much more active in social marketing in the field of health.