ASSESSING DIGITAL HEALTH LITERACY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ENGAGEMENT AMONG SPORTS ENTHUSIASTS WITHIN UNIVERSITY OF BENIN COMMUNITY

This study investigated the relationship between digital health literacy and physical activity engagement among sports enthusiasts within the University of Benin community. A descriptive survey design was employed; with a sample of 100 sports enthusiasts’ selected using purposive sampling technique. A validated questionnaire was used to assess digital health literacy levels and physical activity engagement which was established by the researcher and validated by two experts in the field of Human Kinetics and Sports Science. The data analysis of respondents’ bio data was done using mean, standard deviations and Pearson Correlation used in the analysis of data and testing of hypothesis. ANCOVA Statistics on difference in the frequency or intensity of physical activity between sports enthusiasts with higher digital health literacy levels and lower digital health literacy levels was also used. Data analysis revealed that majority of the sports enthusiasts had a high level of digital health literacy, which positively affected their physical activity engagement. A significant relationship was found between digital health literacy and physical activity engagement. However, no significant difference was observed in the frequency or intensity of physical activity between sports
enthusiasts with higher digital health literacy levels and those with lower digital health literacy levels. The conclusion that was made from the result of the research is that majority of the UNIBEN sports enthusiasts had a high level of digital health literacy, thus positively affecting their physical activity engagement to a high extent. The study recommends enlightening sports enthusiasts on the advantages of physical activity engagement using digital health literacy and increasing the frequency and intensity of physical activity to benefit from its health outcomes