Assessing Internet Surfing Behaviours and Digital Health Literacy among University Students in Ghana during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants’ Characteristics
2.2. Data Collection Instrument
2.3. Procedure
2.4. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Demographic Information of the Students
3.2. Online Information Searching Behaviours Exhibited by University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic
3.3. Thematic Health-Related Areas University Students Searched during the COVID-19 Period
3.4. COVID-19 DHL Levels among University Students in Ghana
4. Discussion
4.1. Limitations
4.2. Practical Implications
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Demographic | Levels | Frequency | Percentage |
---|---|---|---|
Sex | Male | 724 | 71.4 |
Female | 290 | 28.6 | |
Age | 18–25 | 471 | 46.5 |
26–30 | 281 | 27.7 | |
31–35 | 192 | 18.9 | |
36–40 | 70 | 6.9 | |
Semester | 1.00 | 56 | 5.5 |
2.00 | 40 | 3.9 | |
3.00 | 687 | 67.8 | |
4.00 | 45 | 4.4 | |
5.00 | 115 | 11.3 | |
6.00 | 40 | 3.9 | |
8.00 | 31 | 3.1 | |
Programme | Health-related | 812 | 80.1 |
Non-health-related | 202 | 19.9 |
Sources | Used, n (%) | Not Used, n (%) |
---|---|---|
Search engine (e.g., Google, Bing, Yahoo!) | 954 (94.1) | 60 (5.9) |
Social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) | 950 (93.7) | 64 (6.3) |
950 (93.7) | 64 (6.3) | |
News Portals (e.g., newspapers, TV stations) | 934 (92.1) | 80 (7.9) |
Health Portals | 873 (86.1) | 141 (13.9) |
Wikipedia | 869 (85.2) | 145 (14.3) |
Websites of public bodies (e.g., Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, Food and Drugs Authority) | 864 (85.2) | 150 (14.8) |
YouTube | 849 (83.7) | 165 (16.3) |
Blogs on health topics | 808 (79.7) | 206 (20.3) |
Websites of doctors or health insurance companies | 738 (72.8) | 276 (27.2) |
Total | 1014 | 100.0 |
How Important Is It to You That… | Important, n (%) | Not Important, n (%) |
---|---|---|
the information is up to date? | 1004 (99.0) | 10 (1.0) |
you quickly learn the most important things? | 985 (97.1) | 29 (2.9) |
the information comes from official sources? | 985 (97.1) | 29 (2.9) |
the information is verified? | 984 (97.0) | 30 (3.0) |
different opinions are represented? | 960 (94.7) | 54 (5.3) |
the subject is dealt with comprehensively? | 410 (40.4) | 604 (59.6) |
n | Percent | Percent of Cases | |
---|---|---|---|
Symptoms of COVID-19 | 701 | 14.8 | 81.7 |
COVID-19 vaccines | 689 | 14.5 | 80.3 |
Transmission routes of the coronavirus | 664 | 14.0 | 77.4 |
Individual measures to protect against infection | 596 | 12.6 | 69.5 |
Dealing with psychological stress caused by the coronavirus | 541 | 11.4 | 63.1 |
Economic and social consequences of the coronavirus | 529 | 11.2 | 61.7 |
Restrictions | 524 | 11.0 | 61.1 |
Current situation assessments and recommendations | 499 | 10.5 | 58.2 |
Total | 4743 | 100.0 | – |
Programme | Overall M ± SD | M | SD | t | df | p | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Information searching | Non-Health-related | 1.66 ± 0.55 | 1.58 | 0.517 | −2.457 | 1012 | 0.014 * |
Health-related | 1.68 | 0.561 | |||||
Self-generated content | Non-Health-related | 1.72 ± 0.52 | 1.79 | 0.692 | 1.757 | 247.22 | 0.080 |
Health-related | 1.70 | 0.461 | |||||
Reliability | Non-Health-related | 1.89 ± 0.53 | 1.83 | 0.528 | −1.960 | 1012 | 0.051 |
Health-related | 1.91 | 0.531 | |||||
Determining relevance | Non-Health-related | 1.75 ± 0.61 | 1.48 | 0.525 | −7.830 | 352.67 | 0.000 * |
Health-related | 1.82 | 0.617 | |||||
DHL Overall | Non-Health-related | 1.75 ± 0.33 | 1.67 | 0.326 | −4.209 | 1012 | 0.000 * |
Health-related | 1.78 | 0.328 |
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Britwum, F.; Anin, S.K.; Agormedah, E.K.; Quansah, F.; Srem-Sai, M.; Hagan, J.E.; Schack, T. Assessing Internet Surfing Behaviours and Digital Health Literacy among University Students in Ghana during the COVID-19 Pandemic. COVID 2023, 3, 405-417. https://doi.org/10.3390/covid3030030
Britwum F, Anin SK, Agormedah EK, Quansah F, Srem-Sai M, Hagan JE, Schack T. Assessing Internet Surfing Behaviours and Digital Health Literacy among University Students in Ghana during the COVID-19 Pandemic. COVID. 2023; 3(3):405-417. https://doi.org/10.3390/covid3030030
Chicago/Turabian StyleBritwum, Francis, Stephen Kofi Anin, Edmond Kwesi Agormedah, Frank Quansah, Medina Srem-Sai, John Elvis Hagan, and Thomas Schack. 2023. "Assessing Internet Surfing Behaviours and Digital Health Literacy among University Students in Ghana during the COVID-19 Pandemic" COVID 3, no. 3: 405-417. https://doi.org/10.3390/covid3030030