ArticleBMC public health2022
Relation of corona-specific health literacy to use of and trust in information sources during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in BMC public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bioethics at the intersection of politics, society, and healthcare: the significance of media debate analyses.BMC medical ethics · 2025Pooled it
- Digital and Navigational Health Literacy in Swiss Cancer Survivors Compared With the General Population: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Perceived Credibility of Health News and Its Relationship with Trust in Physicians and the Health Care System.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Association between COVID-related health literacy and vaccine acceptance: results of a nationwide cross-sectional study in Hungary.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Exploratory factor analysis on the development and validation of the understanding, attitude, practice and health literacy questionnaire on COVID-19 in Malay language.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The mediating role of health literacy in the relationship between trust in public health authorities and distrust in health systems.BMC public health · 2025Article
- A Delphi study on health literacy competencies for health professionals.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Narratives about distributed health literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic.Health (London, England : 1997) · 2025Article
- Health Literacy and Acceptance of COVID-19 Preventive Measures and Vaccination in the European Union: A Scoping Review.Health literacy research and practice · 2025Article
- Article
- Access to Information, and Concerns, Myths and Truths about Food Safety during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Overview of the Portuguese Population.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Frequent hospital presenters' use of health information during COVID-19: results of a cross-sectional survey.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Changes in information-seeking patterns and perception of health crisis management in a year of COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional study.Croatian medical journal · 2023Article
- Trust in and Use of COVID-19 Information Sources Differs by Health Literacy among College Students.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Activities Carried Out during the First COVID-19 Lockdown by Italian Citizens.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Health information-seeking behavior of nursing students in Isfahan city about COVID-19 disease.Journal of education and health promotion · 2023Article
- Article
- Acceptance of Public Health Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Swiss Population's Beliefs, Attitudes, Trust, and Information-Seeking Behavior.International journal of public health · 2023Article
- Risk communication and community engagement as an emerging pillar of health emergency management in Iran: Achievements and the way forward.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- An analysis of COVID-19 information sources.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCOVID-19 has developed into a worldwide pandemic which was accompanied by an «infodemic» consisting of much false and misleading information. To cope with these new challenges, health literacy plays an essential role. The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a trend study in Switzerland on corona-specific health literacy, the use of and trust in information sources during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their relationships.
methodsThree online surveys each with approximately 1'020 individuals living in the German-speaking part of Switzerland (age ≥ 18 years) were conducted at different timepoints during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely spring, fall and winter 2020. For the assessment of corona-specific health literacy, a specifically developed instrument (HLS-COVID-Q22) was used. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate data analyses have been conducted.
resultsIn general, a majority of the Swiss-German population reported sufficient corona-specific health literacy levels which increased during the pandemic: 54.6% participants in spring, 62.4% in fall and 63.3% in winter 2020 had sufficient corona-specific health literacy. Greatest difficulties concerned the appraisal of health information on the coronavirus. The most used information sources were television (used by 73.3% in spring, 70% in fall and 72.3% in winter) and the internet (used by 64.1, 64.8 and 66.5%). Although health professionals, health authorities and the info-hotline were rarely mentioned as sources for information on the coronavirus, respondents had greatest trust in them. On the other hand, social media were considered as the least trustworthy information sources. Respondents generally reporting more trust in the various information sources, tended to have higher corona-specific health literacy levels.
conclusionsSufficient health literacy is an essential prerequisite for finding, understanding, appraising, and applying health recommendations, particularly in a situation where there is a rapid spread of a huge amount of information. The population should be supported in their capability in appraising the received information and in assessing the trustworthiness of different information sources.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.