Assessment of Digital Health Literacy and Its Associated Factors Among University Students During Covid-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

Background and Objectives: With digital communication technologies such as the internet, and social media platforms, COVID-19 infodemic spreads faster than the coronavirus itself, hence, interfering with national public health containment strategies and government health communication. The objective of this research was to access digital health literacy and its associated factors among university students during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia, 2021.Materials and Methods: A total of 1532 Malaysian students participated in this cross-sectional web-based survey. A standardized questionnaire was created using Google Form, and the link was shared via different social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. Chi-Square Test was used to assess the level of Digital Health Literacy, and web-based information seeking among university students. Results: Among 1532 adult respondents in this study, we found that 42% of the people had difficulties to assess the reliability of health-related information and 42.2% had the ability to decide whether the information provided was written with commercial interest. In addition, sociodemographic variables: age of respondents, gender, race, residents, occupational status, educational status, marital status, family income and employment status were significantly associated with the level of digital health literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic with p-value of less than 0.05 by using Chi-square test.Conclusion: Though digital health literacy is well established among university students; a significant number of students still face difficulties with certain abilities to evaluate information. Digital health literacy needs to be strengthened among university students in order to improve the quality of health-related information on the internet.