Effectiveness of Web-Based Health Education and Consultation on Health Promotion Behaviors of Adolescents

Background: Adolescent is a critical period for many health-risk behaviours, such as alcohol consumption, smoking, having unsafe sex, insufficient exercise, and diet, psychological problems, which can be reduced by targeted web-based health education and consultation interventions. Web-based interventions have advantages in terms of acceptability and accessibility and have shown some study to promote health behaviours and e-Health literacy among adolescents.

Objective: The aims of this study was to examine the effectiveness of web-based health education and consultation on health promotion behaviors (ie, smoking, health responsibility, nutrition, interpersonal relationships, spiritual health, alcohol and substance abuse, positive life outlook, unsafe sex, malnutrition) of adolescents and their e-health literacy.

Methods: This randomized controlled study consisted of 252 adolescents, of whom 120 were in the control group and 132 comprised the intervention group. Sociodemographic characteristics of adolescents, internet usage, Adolescent Lifestyle Questionnaire (ALQ), e-health literacy, and information levels of the adolescents were determined before the intervention. No procedures were applied to the control group. A web-based health education and consultation program designed to promote a healthy lifestyle was applied to the intervention group. The results were re-evaluated three months after the intervention.

The investigators first hypothesis is that adolescents in the intervention (the web-based education and consultation) group would report significantly higher level of well-being ( ie, positive life outlook, stress management, spiritual health and health-related quality of life) and health behaviors (ie, health responsibility, nutrition, exercise ) at 3-month follow-up compared to the control group. Second, it is expected that participants in the intervention group would report a significantly higher level of eHealth literacy and knowledge at 3-month follow-up compared to the control group.