1.G. Workshop: COVID-HL: A global survey on digital health literacy in university students during the pandemic
Authors:   Organised by: EUPHA-HP, COVID-HL Network,   Chair persons: Orkan Okan (EUPHA-HP), Kevin Dadazcynski (Germany)
Published: October 2021

Digital health literacy in university students and the capacity of academic and public institutions to maintain and promote health are timely, critical, and applicable to the whole world, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has impacted society at whole. It changed the ways students access public health information and communicate about health. Reliable and trustworthy information is needed for all students to tackle present and future disease outbreaks, societal crisis, and strengthen health resources. For example, people with higher health literacy are more likely to follow the behavioural recommendations and receive vaccination. In addition, they are more likely to be competent to deal with the overabundance of information and protect themselves from false information about COVID-19, supporting their national emergencies strategies by adhering to protective behaviour recommendations. However, not much is known about student`s digital health literacy and their information needs. The COVID Health Literacy Network (COVID-HL) is an international research community of partners from more than 60 different countries from academia and NGOs, and was formed in March 2020 during the onset of the pandemic. COVID-HL seeks to understand digital health literacy concerning COVID-19 and its impact on health outcomes and inequalities, at a global level and in different population groups. Using shared data collection instruments based on a web-based survey, in the initial study COVID-HL members together have collected data from over 70,000 university students globally. This was the first global population-based survey on digital health literacy. The purpose of this workshop is to present and compare some of the country results of the COVID-HL survey. The workshop will comprise five presentation from Germany, Greece, Portugal, Finland, and Lebanon. The findings vary across countries, but generally students have sufficient levels of digital health literacy. In contrast, they have problems evaluating the reliability of online health information about COVID-19 and lack the ability to determine whether commercial interest is attached to messages. The findings will be used for knowledge transfer in order to bridge the know-do gap, deliver tailored, easy-to-understand and practical information and inform interventions. Insights will inspire both national needs and international challenges, providing strategies to combat the pandemic and inform future digital health research and policy. Each project will be given ample time to present their findings, which will be followed by Q&A and an open discussion with the audiences. This workshop offers a forum for researchers, practitioners and policymakers interested in digital health literacy, digital public health, and global cross-country surveys and methods. By dialogue and two-way communication, vivid interaction will be ensured, allow building synergies, and facilitate networking and capacity building.

Key messages

Digital health literacy is an important tool for students to navigate online health information, especially during a crisis like the COVID19 pandemic. Digital health literacy must be included to educational and education-related policy programs, also considering university policies and programs.