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

Abstract

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.

Profiles of digital health literacy among university students and its association with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis

“… 67 A study conducted in Taiwan indicated a significant and complete mediating effect of fear of COVID-19 between digital health literacy and future anxiety among university students. 68 A study conducted in Ghana revealed a significant impact of digital health literacy on depression, particularly among male students. 66 Research has suggested that digital health literacy can enhance individuals’ self-efficacy.…”

The Intersection of Health Literacy and Public Health: A Machine Learning-Enhanced Bibliometric Investigation

“…This makes sense because the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent public health crisis was an event closely related to health literacy, as the lack of information and guidelines was a big problem, especially in the first moments of the crisis. Many people were overwhelmed by accurate and inaccurate information, which was difficult to distinguish, especially given the unfamiliarity of the situation [31][32][33][34].…”

“…COVID-19 and vaccination hesitancy are topics that have recently gained attention due to the pandemic and infodemic situation that increased vaccination hesitancy around the world [66]. Other topics related to the pandemic and co-occurring infodemic are the ones of social media [33,67] and mental health [68][69][70].…”