JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by the spread of uncontrolled health information and fake news that quickly became an infodemic too. The risk of emergency communication is a challenge for public health institutions to engage the public in managing disease outbreaks. The use of mainstream media and social media as communication emergency channels requires adequate health literacy (HL) and digital health literacy (DHL) in the population, so public efforts should also be made in this direction.

Objective:

The aim of this study is to investigate the DHL skills of Italian medical students and the effectiveness of a course offered by the University of Florence (Italy). This course focuses on assessing the quality of medical information through the use of the “dottoremaeveroche” (DMEVC) Web resource offered by the Italian Medical Doctors Federation, and on concepts of evidence-based medicine.

Methods:

A pre-post study was conducted at the University of Florence between November and December 2020. First-year medical students participated in a web-based survey before and after attending the informatics course and an in-depth analysis of the DMEVC website and related e-tivitiy. The DHL level was assessed using the IT-eHEALS tool and questions about the features and quality of the resources. All responses were rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Change in perception of skills was assessed using the Wilcoxon test.

Results:

A total of 341 students participated in the survey at the beginning of the informatics course (F: 61.9%; mean age: 19.8±2.0) and 217 of them completed the survey at the end of the course. At the beginning of the course, the DHL level was intermediate and the mean total score of the IT-eHEALS was 2.9±0.9. Students felt moderately confident about finding health-related information on the Internet (mean score of 3.4±1.1), whereas they doubted the usefulness of the information they received (mean score of 2.0±1.0). All scores improved significantly in the post-assessment. The overall mean score of the IT-eHEALS increased to 4.2±0.6 (p<.001). The item with the highest score was related to recognizing the quality of health information (mean score of 4.5±0.7), whereas the confidence in the practical application of the information obtained remained a problem despite the improvement (mean score of 3.7±1.1). Almost all students (94.5%) appreciated the DMEVC as an educational tool.

Conclusions:

The effectiveness of the DMEVC in medical students should be directed toward the use of online learning programmes. Because DHL can be considered a determinant of health, public communication efforts should include accessible tools and resources, such as the DMVEC website, to facilitate access to validated evidence and understanding of health recommendations.