Evaluation of e-health literacy with the DMVEC.it website in undergraduate student: a pre-test and post-test study

Abstract Background The struggle against fake medical news, especially spread by web sources, is a main issue in public health. Even among college students, there is a lack of eHealth literacy (eHL) skills. The Italian Medical Doctors Federation (FNOMCeO) promoted a website as a first-aid communication kit for notions in health hot-topics named “dottoremaeveroche” (DMVEC). This study aims to evaluate its effectiveness in improving eHL. Methods Between April 2019 and October 2020, college students attending the first year of medical and communication theory course at the University of Florence (Italy) joined a web-based survey before and after accessing the DMVEC website. The 8-item self-assessment IT-eHEALS tool was used to examine subject’s eHL, in addition to questions on source’s features and its quality. All responses were rated on a 5-points Likert scale. Changing of abilities perception was assessed using Wilcoxon test. Results 362 students joined the survey, 329 medical and 33 communication ones. Participants felt moderately confident in eHL, with an initial IT-eHEALS overall mean score of 3.6 ± 0.7 for medical students and of 3.2 ± 0.8 for communication students. Medical students had a good perception on how to find helpful health sources (mean score of 3.9 ± 0.8) and communication students felt sure in discerning sources quality (mean score of 3.5 ± 1.0). Instead, their confidence in using web information to make health decisions was low (medical students: mean score of 2.9 ± 1.1; communication students: mean score of 2.8 ± 1.1). All items improved after the use of DMVEC, with overall mean score of IT-eHEALS increasing to 4.3 ± 0.6 (p < 0.01) for medical students and to 4.1 ± 0.8 (p < 0.01) for communication students. Also the items with the lowest scores improved, even if remained the most critical (medical students: mean score of 3.9 ± 1.2; communication students: mean score of 3.6 ± 1.4; p < 0.01). Conclusions Low levels of eHL can damage public health efforts, as seen during COVID19 pandemic. DMVEC effectiveness in college students demonstrated the benefit of online educational interventions that, with further implementation, could help in tackling infodemic and fake news spreading.