Effect of E-Health Literacy on Mental Health of People During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in China and spread rapidly around the world which caused anxiety and fear in people and had a negative impact on their mental health. The rapid development of information and communication technology has affected all fields, including the health. Due to the increase of electronic sources for health-related information, having sufficient e-health literacy seems to be necessary. This systematic review aims to determine the relationship between e-health literacy and mental state of people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a systematic review study. A search was conducted for related studies in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Sciences databases using the keywords “Electronic Health Literacy”, “COVID-19”, “Mental State” in English. The studies that investigated the relationship between e-health literacy and mental state of people during the pandemic were included in the review without time limits. The articles were examined using the PRISMA checklist. From 116 found articles, 6 eligible articles were finally selected for the review.

The age of participants in the selected articles was in a range of 18-65 years. In all studies, the positive effect of e-health literacy on people’s mental health was mentioned. They showed that e-health literacy, through increasing people’s knowledge and coping skills, leads to reducing the fear of COVID-19, increasing resilience and well-being, supporting mental well-being, and finally improving the quality of life (QoL) of people.

The e-health literacy can reduce the mental health problems of patients, medical staff and the general public during the pandemic. It seems that taking measures that increase the e-health literacy of people can improve their general health.