Health Literacy, Health Information Quality, And Health-Seeking Behaviour Among Postgraduate Students in Public Universities in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Health-seeking behaviour among Nigerian university populations is shaped by complex interactions among individual competencies, information environments, and institutional health resources. Yet the specific pathway through which health literacy - the ability to access, understand, appraise, and apply health-related information — affects health-seeking behaviour via the parallel role of perceived health information quality remains underexplored, particularly among postgraduate populations in under-resourced southeastern Nigerian states. This study examined the influence of health literacy and health information quality on health-seeking behaviour among postgraduate students in public universities in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Two specific objectives guided the study: (i) to assess the effect of health literacy on health-seeking behaviour among postgraduate students in public universities in Ebonyi State; and (ii) to examine the relationship between health information quality and health-seeking behaviour among postgraduate students in public universities in Ebonyi State. A descriptive correlational survey design was employed. Using Yamane's (1967) sample size formula, 356 postgraduate students were selected from Ebonyi State University (EBSU) and Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI) through a stratified random sampling technique. A validated structured questionnaire (Cronbach's α = 0.87) served as the data collection instrument. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, simple linear regression, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation in SPSS version 26. Results showed that health literacy significantly and positively predicted health-seeking behaviour (β = 0.463, F(1, 354) = 99.14, R² = 0.214, p < .001), and that health information quality was significantly and positively correlated with health-seeking behaviour (r = 0.641, p < .001, r² = 0.411). Both findings exhibited large effect sizes with important implications for postgraduate student health policy in Ebonyi State and comparably resource-constrained higher education contexts across sub-Saharan Africa.