The effects of a short video intervention on digital health literacy skills: Protocol for an online randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background Social media has transformed health communication and has an increasing influence on public health communication. There are growing concerns about how people find good quality health information online, and their ability to use, understand and appraise it. This skill or practice has been termed digital health literacy or eHealth Literacy.Methods Participants (N = 2120) will be randomly allocated to receive the eHealth literacy intervention via one of the three intervention modality groups: (1) a short animated video, (2) a TikTok-style short video, (3) written-text, or a control group who received a separate, unrelated healthy eating factsheet from the Australian government.Results Outcomes include critical evaluation skills of online health information (primary) and the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) (secondary). Statistical analysis will be conducted using planned contrasts between the three intervention groups and the control group, using appropriate regression models.Discussion This trial will identify whether a brief online digital health literacy intervention can improve critical evaluation skills and eHealth literacy, and the impact of the intervention modality.Trial registration number This trial has been registered with the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (trial number: ACTRN12623001229662).

Keywords

• e-health literacy
• digital health literacy
• health education
• social media
• misinformation
• critical health literacy