The Relationship between E-Health Literacy and Health-Promoting Behaviors in Nursing Students: A Multiple Mediation Model

Sunghee Kim and Jihyun Oh
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Sunghee Kim: Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea
Jihyun Oh: Department of Nursing, Daejeon University, Daejeon 34520, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-12

Abstract: The availability of a wide range of online health-related information on the internet has made it an increasingly popular source of health information, particularly for people in their 20s. This study aimed to explore possible multistep and indirect pathways of association between e-health literacy and health-promoting behaviors through social media use for health information, online health information-seeking behaviors, and self-care agency among nursing students. The study included 558 nursing students from three different universities in South Korea. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from 2 August to 29 August, 2019. The results show that e-health literacy had a significant direct effect on health-promoting behaviors through the three mediators. Moreover, the overall model explained 46% of the total variance in health-promoting behaviors. Based on these findings, it is necessary to introduce interventions that improve e-health literacy and develop a strategy to promote healthy behaviors. It is also necessary to develop programs to improve e-health literacy competency in nursing students. Moreover, health interventions that improve health-promoting behaviors should be developed, and research to evaluate the effect of the interventions should be conducted.

Keywords: health-promoting behaviors; e-health literacy; self-care agency; online health information-seeking behaviors; nursing students (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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