Associations Among Online Health Information Seeking Behaviors, Electronic Health Literacy and Food Neophobia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Few studies have investigated whether improve electronic health (eHealth) literacy can alleviate food neophobia in university students. We explored the associations among online health information (OHI)-seeking behaviors, eHealth literacy and food neophobia. A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study of 5151 university students in China was conducted from October to December 2022. The study used Chinese versions of the eHealth literacy scale (C-eHEALS), and the food neophobia scale (FNS-C), as well as the OHI-seeking behaviors scale. Data were collected through Wenjuanxing software. Analysis of variance, t-tests, the Pearson correlation coefficient and chi-square tests were performed for data analysis. The average (SD) scores of C-eHEALS and FNS-C were 26.81 (5.83) and 38.86 (6.93), respectively. University students in China had a low C-eHEALS and a high FNS-C level, and there were significant differences between the high and low groups of C-eHEALS (P < .001) and FNS-C (P < .001). There was also a significant correlation between eHealth literacy and food neophobia (P < .001), and a lower eHealth literacy level indicated a higher probability of food neophobia occurrence. University students with high FNS-C and low C-eHEALS show more OHI-seeking behaviors. When schools, communities, and parents want to alleviate students’ food neophobia, OHI-seeking training to improve eHealth literacy may be a good intervention.