Relationship between electronic health literacy and health behaviors of nursing students
Keywords:
Electronic health literacy, Health behaviors, Nursing studentsAbstract
Electronic health literacy (e-HL) is an important for promoting health behaviors, especially for nursing students who will serve as the model for service users. This descriptive correlational research aimed to study e-HL, health behavior, and determine the relationship between e-HL and health behavior of nursing students. The study sample comprises 209 nursing students of the Bachelor of Nursing Program in their 1st to 4th year who were studying in the 2024 academic year at the Faculty of Nursing, Naresuan University. The students were selected using systematic random sampling based on their identification numbers. The research instruments consisted of two sets: an electronic health literacy questionnaire based on Norman and Skinner’s conceptual framework and a health behavior questionnaire developed by the researcher based on the 3 A. and 2 S. concepts of the Health Education Division. The content validity was .98. Both questionnaires had Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .88 and .80, respectively. The data were collected from February to March 2025 and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation coefficient. The results showed that the overall e-health literacy of nursing students was at the highest level ( =4.29, SD=.55). The overall health behavior of nursing students was at a high level ( =3.57, SD=35), and the overall e-health literacy had a low positive relationship with the overall health behavior of nursing students (r=.242) with statistical significance (p<.001). Therefore, learning enhancement activities should be organized to maintain e-health literacy and promote health behaviors, especially in food consumption and exercise, as these behaviors were at a moderate level.
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