The availability of a wide range of online health-related information on the internet has made it an increasingly popular source of health information, particularly for people in their 20s. This study aimed to explore possible multistep and indirect pathways of association between e-health literacy and health-promoting behaviors through social media use for health information, online health information-seeking behaviors, and self-care agency among nursing students. The study included 558 nursing students from three different universities in South Korea. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from 2 August to 29 August, 2019. The results show that e-health literacy had a significant direct effect on health-promoting behaviors through the three mediators. Moreover, the overall model explained 46% of the total variance in health-promoting behaviors. Based on these findings, it is necessary to introduce interventions that improve e-health literacy and develop a strategy to promote healthy behaviors. It is also necessary to develop programs to improve e-health literacy competency in nursing students. Moreover, health interventions that improve health-promoting behaviors should be developed, and research to evaluate the effect of the interventions should be conducted.
Keywords: e-health literacy; health-promoting behaviors; nursing students; online health information-seeking behaviors; self-care agency.