Navigating the digital health maze: A scoping review of literacy among higher education students
Noor Ahmed Hamad, Usra Elshaikh, Nour Waleed Zuhair Alhussaini, Sana Elashie, Khadiga Abdulrashid, Manar Yaseen, Sahar ElSaleh, Sana Al-Harahsheh, Farid Al-Salim, Ghadir Fakhri Al-JayyousiObjective
This review aims to map the available literature on DHL among students of higher education to explore the applied definitions, and measurement tools, its determinants and its impact on various health behaviors and decisions, and examine whether the selected studies address the main domains of the eHLF.
Methods
A scoping review was conducted across the PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases to retrieve all publications related to health literacy of higher education students. At the first level of Title/abstract screening, the article was included if the HL concept is explicitly mentioned, the population comprises students of higher education, the publications are in English, and the primary research studies that are of any research design. On the other hand, reviews, conference abstracts, theses and dissertations, grey literature were excluded. After the second level of screening was performed, only articles labeled under digital health literacy were included in this review. The PRISMA-ScR checklist was included.
Results
Out of 4,526 articles identified in the initial search, 75 studies were included in this review. Majority of the studies were cross-sectional, conducted between 2020 and 2024, and employed the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS). DHL was examined as an outcome determined by age, gender, education level, socioeconomic status, self-efficacy and confidence in using online health information, the type of institution, university majors, and use of reliable resources. DHL was also examined as an exposure with a significant impact on dietary behaviors, the use of health services, vaccine willingness and concerns related to COVID-19. The exploration of the third domain of eHLF —the eHealth system’s adaptability to context-specific needs— was the least addressed.
Conclusions
The findings suggest the use of consistent definition of DHL and application of qualitative research and frameworks to capture system-level factors and institutional contexts in which DHL skills are actually used.