The effect of health literacy, psychological resilience, and internet addiction levels on the fear of COVID-19 in healthcare professionals

BackgroundHealthcare professionals are known to make intensive use of the internet to improve their health literacy, preserve their psychological resilience, resolve uncertainties, and lessen their fear of COVID-19. Although several studies have addressed these concepts, we encountered none examining their relationships with one another.ObjectiveThis research set out to determine the effects of health literacy, psychological resilience, and internet addiction levels on the fear of COVID-19 in healthcare professionals.MethodsThe sample in this descriptive, cross-sectional, and correlation-seeking research consisted of 456 health workers. The data were collected using an information form and the Health Literacy Scale (HLS), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Young's Internet Addiction Test-Short Form (YIAT-SF), and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale.ResultsThe mean age of the health professionals enrolled in the research was 40.80 ± 11.39 years (min 22, max 68), 52.4% were women, 87.1% held bachelor's degrees, 86.8% were married, and 5.9% were working as nurses. The participants' mean scale scores were 54.97 ± 5.62 for the HLS, 26.95 ± 9.57 for YIAT-SF, 20.57 ± 3.62 for the BRS, and 20.33 ± 2.97 for the Fear of COVID-19 Scale.ConclusionsThe healthcare professionals in this study exhibited adequate levels of health literacy and psychological resilience, a moderate level of internet addiction, and still experienced fear of COVID-19. Health literacy, internet addiction, and psychological well-being emerged as important factors in the fear of COVID-19.