A conceptual model of the impacts of quality components of a health department website on students’ health literacy at Semnan University of Medical Sciences

BACKGROUND: People with poor health literacy are those who have less knowledge about disease management and health promotion behaviors, and generally have poorer health status. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of qualitative components of the health website of Semnan University of Medical Sciences on the students’ health literacy. METHODS: This study was performed on 529 medical and allied health students in schools affiliated to Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2016–2017. A researcher-made questionnaire and standard questionnaire were used. Descriptive statistics and regression test were used by SPSS 19 to analyze data in significance level of 0.01. RESULTS: The findings showed that there were poor relationships between communications in the health website and health literacy (R(2)=0.265, B=0.50), between understanding of concepts in the health website and health literacy (R(2)=0.259, B=0.38) and patient centeredness in the health website and health literacy (R(2)=0.241, B=0.30). CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the empowerment of students’ health literacy through the University Health Department website can be realized when the health department website is used as a tool for learning and the website is much more active in social marketing in the field of health.