Abstract:

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of health management students’ perception of social media usage on e-health literacy. Another objective of the study is to investigate students’ perceptions of social media use and e-health literacy in terms of demographic variables. The universe of the study consists of students studying in the Health Management department of a state university (N=450). In this study, no sample was selected, but a survey was distributed to all students who had agreed to participate in the research. Thus a total of 337 participants were reached. The data of the study were collected between December 2-10, 2019. According to the data obtained from the study, students have an intermediate level of e-health literacy and social media usage. In view of the correlation coefficients between variables, there are positive and low levels of relations between e-health literacy and the sub-dimensions of social media use. The subdimensions of social media use all together explain 12.1% of the total variance on e-health literacy. In addition, it was identified that the scores the students received from the e-health literacy scale showed statistically significant differences across different age and class levels; and the scores they received from the dimension of integration with social routines showed statistically significant differences across different gender and class levels.

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