The Influence of Health Information Orientation, E-Health Literacy, and Anxiety on Health Behavior among Parents with School Age Children: Focusing on MERS Prevention Behavior

Abstract

This study was conducted in order to examine how health information orientation, e-health literacy, and anxiety influence MERS-related health behavior in parents with school age children. A total of 146 subjects living in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do were used as valid data. According to the results, the parents’ socio-economic status such as education level and monthly income level, health information orientation, e-health literacy, and MERS-related anxiety explained about 15.4% of variance in MERS infection prevention behavior. In particular, e-health literacy and anxiety about MERS infection in themselves and their families were found to be the most influential factors. Based on these findings, interventions should be designed to manage people’s e-health literacy and anxiety in response to the outbreak of an unknown infectious disease like MERS.