Literacy and Mental Health of Portuguese Higher Education Students and Their Use of Health Promotion Strategies during Confinement in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ana Paula Oliveira, Joana Rita Nobre, Henrique Luis, Luis Soares Luis, Núria Albacar-Riobóo, Lara Guedes Pinho and Carlos Sequeira
Additional contact information
Ana Paula Oliveira: Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal
Joana Rita Nobre: Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal
Henrique Luis: Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal
Luis Soares Luis: Center for Innovative Care and Health Technology (ciTechcare), Polytechnic of Leiria, 2410-541 Leiria, Portugal
Núria Albacar-Riobóo: Faculty of Nursing, University of Rovira e Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain
Lara Guedes Pinho: Nursing School, University of Evora, 7000-811 Evora, Portugal
Carlos Sequeira: Nursing School of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-11

Abstract: The pandemic of COVID-19 caused significant changes in economies and societies with a major impact on the entire education process. However, these changes did not invalidate a constant effort of adaptation. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study used an online questionnaire administered to students from various study cycles at higher education institutions in Portugal, with the aim of exploring the influence of literacy and mental health on the use of mental health promotion strategies during COVID-19 confinement. A total of 329 students from higher education institutions participated in this study, mostly from the age group 18–24 years ( n = 272; 82.7%) and female ( n = 265, 80.5%). The most mentioned health promotion strategies during this period included studying ( n = 170; 51.7%); physical activities ( n = 151, 45.9%); social networking ( n = 124, 37.7%); cooking activities ( n = 120, 36.5%); and listening to music ( n = 118, 35.9%). Academic success is self-reported, and it is weakly correlated with the MHI5 (r = 0.103, p = 0.063). Students in the pre-graduate programs studied more during the times of the pandemic and used this activity as a mental-health-promoting strategy with a statistically significant difference ( p = 0.033). Although it was difficult to improve health literacy related to COVID-19 in such a short period of time, there was a very strong motivation to access, understand, evaluate, communicate, synthesize, and apply information and knowledge to maintain mental health through self-care using health promotion strategies.

Keywords: mental health; literacy; higher education students; health promotion strategies; confinement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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