Saskia Maria De Gani|Fabian Berger|Elena Guggiari|Rebecca Jaks
Relation of corona-specific health literacy to use of and trust in information sources during the COVID-19 pandemic
covid19 developed worldwide pandemic accompanied infodemic consisting much false misleading information cope new challenges health literacy plays essential role aim paper present findings trend study switzerland coronaspecific health literacy use trust information sources covid19 pandemic relationshipsthree online surveys approximately 1020 individuals living germanspeaking part switzerland age 18 years conducted different timepoints covid19 pandemic namely spring fall winter 2020 assessment coronaspecific health literacy specifically developed instrument hlscovidq22 used descriptive bivariate multivariate data analyses conductedin general majority swissgerman population reported sufficient coronaspecific health literacy levels increased pandemic 546 participants spring 624 fall 633 winter 2020 sufficient coronaspecific health literacy greatest difficulties concerned appraisal health information coronavirus used information sources television used 733 spring 70 fall 723 winter internet used 641 648 665 although health professionals health authorities infohotline rarely mentioned sources information coronavirus respondents greatest trust hand social media considered least trustworthy information sources respondents generally reporting trust various information sources tended higher coronaspecific health literacy levelssufficient health literacy essential prerequisite finding understanding appraising applying health recommendations particularly situation rapid spread huge amount information population supported capability appraising received information assessing trustworthiness different information sources