Health literacy predicts Covid-19 awareness and protective behaviours of university students

Naveed, Muhammad Asif; Shaukat, Rozeen

BACKGROUND: Health literacy is expected to help individuals deal with the required infection control and knowledge to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVES: This study examined the impact of health literacy on Covid-19 awareness and protective behaviours of university students in Pakistan. METHODS: An online questionnaire was used to collect data from students at three universities in Punjab. The approved questionnaire contained 12 statements related to HL, 21 items towards Covid-19 awareness, and 11 statements related to protective behaviours, along with some demographic data. Data analysis used Pearson correlation and simple linear regression. RESULTS: Health literacy of university students positively predicted their Covid-19 awareness and protective behaviours indicating that students with high health literacy were likely to be more aware of Covid-19 and adopt health protective behaviours. There were gender and rural/urban differences. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrated an urgent need for planning a needs-based health literacy programme focusing specifically on Covid-19 literacy in Pakistan. This research might help policy-makers, NGOs, and health librarians devise suitable programme.