The Impact of e-Health Literacy on Health Promotion Behaviors of High School Students

Özet

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of e-health literacy on health promotion behaviors on high school students.Materials and Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional and relational study was conducted between May-June 2019 in a high school chosen bya random sampling method from the high schools of Narlıdere District of İzmir Province. Data were collected using a descriptive informationform, the e-Health Literacy scale in Adolescents and the Adolescent Health Promotion scale. The data collected from the study was analyzedusing numbers, percentages, average, Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis in SPSS 22.0.Results: 57.1% of the students included in this study were male and their mean age was 16.52±0.92 years. It was found that 47% of the studentswere studying in the 10th grade. Of the students’ mothers, 42.1% were primary school graduates, while 29.2% of the fathers were primary schoolgraduates. It was determined that 95% of the students used the internet, 69.4% accessed the internet via mobile phone and 65.3% did not takehealth promotion lessons at school. It was also seen that there was a positive moderate relationship between the e-health literacy and meanHealth Promotion scale scores of the high school students, and that 17% of the factors affecting adolescent health promotion behaviors wereexplained by the total e-health literacy mean scores (r=0.416; p<0.001).Conclusion: It was found that there was a statistically significant relationship between e-health literacy and the health promotion behaviorsof the students, but it was found that the total score means of health promotion behaviors were not at the desired level. Starting from anearly period, it is recommended to conduct interventional studies aimed at increasing health promotion behaviors in children and adolescents.