Sense of coherence mediates the relationship between digital health literacy and anxiety about the future in aging population during the COVID-19 pandemic: a path analysis

Iqbal

et al. 2021

Preprint

Amid to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital health literacy (DHL) has become a significant public health concern. This research aims to assess information seeking behavior, as well as the ability to find relevant information and deal with DHL among university students in Pakistan. An online-based cross-sectional survey, using a web-based interviewing technique, was conducted to collect data on DHL. Simple bivariate and multivariate linear regression was performed to assess the association of key characteristics with DHL. The results show a high DHL related to COVID-19 in 54.3% of students. Most of the Pakistani students demonstrated ~50% DHL in all dimensions, except of reliability. Multivariate findings showed that gender, sense of coherence and importance of information were found to be significantly associated with DHL. However, a negative association was observed with students’ satisfaction with information. This led to the conclusion that critical operational and navigations skills are essential to achieve COVID-19 DHL and cope with stress, particularly to promote both personal and community health. Focused interventions and strategies should be designed to enhance DHL amongst university students to combat the pandemic.

Section: Critical Analysis Of Results In the International Contextsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

COVID-19 and Health Information Seeking Behavior: Digital Health Literacy Survey Amongst University Students in Pakistan

Iqbal

et al. 2021

Preprint

“…[ 58 ]. This tool was adapted to assess the general living situation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the Chinese context [ 59 ]. Item response options ranged from 0 to 6.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The responses of items 1,3,6,7,9 were reversed for calculating the overall score. The overall score was the average score of 9 items, with higher values indicating a higher SOC [ 58 , 59 ]. The Cronbach’s alpha value in the current study was 0.93.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in School Principals: Impacts of Gender, Well-Being, and Coronavirus-Related Health Literacy

et al. 2021

Self Cite

Purposes: To explore the associated factors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and examine psychometric properties of the coronavirus-related health literacy questionnaire (HLS-COVID-Q22) and Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy questionnaire. Methods: An online survey was conducted from 23 June to 16 July 2021 on 387 school principals across Taiwan. Data collection included socio-demographic characteristics, information related to work, physical and mental health, COVID-19 related perceptions, sense of coherence, coronavirus-related health literacy, and vaccine hesitancy. Principal component analysis, correlation analysis, linear regression models were used for validating HLS-COVID-Q22, Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, and examining the associations. Results: HLS-COVID-Q22 and Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy were found with satisfactory construct validity (items loaded on one component with factor loading values range 0.57 to 0.81, and 0.51 to 0.78), satisfactory convergent validity (item-scale correlations range 0.60 to 0.79, and 0.65 to 0.74), high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.96 and 0.90), and without floor or ceiling effects (percentages of possibly lowest score and highest score <15%), respectively. Low scores of vaccine hesitancy were found in male principals (regression coefficient, B, −0.69; 95% confidence interval, 95%CI, −1.29, −0.10; p = 0.023), principals with better well-being (B, −0.25; 95%CI, −0.47, −0.03; p = 0.029), and higher HLS-COVID-Q22 (B, −1.22; 95%CI, −1.89, −0.54; p < 0.001). Conclusions: HLS-COVID-Q22 and Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy were valid and reliable tools. Male principals and those with better well-being, and higher health literacy had a lower level of vaccine hesitancy. Improving principals’ health literacy and well-being is suggested to be a strategic approach to increase vaccine acceptance for themselves, their staff, and students.

“…In this light, recent studies suggest that—apart from perceived locus of control—there is a negative relationship between sense of coherence and the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, psychological stress levels may increase and mental health may deteriorate significantly ( Gómez-Salgado et al, 2020 ; Schäfer et al, 2020 ; Leung et al, 2021 ; Ruiz-Frutos et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internal Locus of Control and Sense of Coherence Decrease During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey of Students and Professionals in Social Work

et al. 2021

Mental health is severely challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic due to a variety of restrictions in public and private life. Students in particular may face additional and unique stressors: face-to-face classes have been largely replaced by digital formats, leading to further reduced social contacts, thus facilitating the development of psychological symptoms. In this study, we aimed to assess the impact of the current peri-pandemic situation on students’ 1) locus of control and 2) sense of coherence, both of which have been linked to mental health in previous work. A total of 403 social work students from Germany participated, providing both retrospective (pre-pandemic) and current (February/March 2021) ratings. Furthermore, 324 social work professionals were included to analyze differences between both groups. Locus of control shifted significantly from internal to external during the pandemic for students and professionals. Furthermore, high mental burden correlated with increased external and decreased internal locus of control. Sense of coherence decreased during the pandemic for the entire sample and correlated with high mental burden. Overall, students showed a stronger drop compared to professionals, primarily due to a more pronounced decrease in perceived meaningfulness (all p < 0.001). In summary, students and professionals responded with increased feelings of powerlessness in the absence of sufficient coping strategies—this could lead to further deterioration of mental health as the pandemic continues. In this context, students appear to be particularly vulnerable to a reduction in sense of coherence. We conclude that interventions to improve coping strategies are urgently needed.