Abstract: The worldwide coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic not only burdens health care systems but also challenges people’s health information literacy. To study the effects of the health information literacy of patients with mild symptoms, which account for 80% of all confirmed infected cases, on their recovery, and to advise the public on improving public health information literacy for better responding to public health emergencies, this study investigated patients tested positive with new coronavirus pneumonia through a questionnaire survey. We analyzed the sample patients’ health information needs, access, assessment and decision-making behavior during different phases of infection. We found that the need for health information at different periods is significantly different. More authoritative sources have been accessed when the patients received more treatments. More willingness to use reliable health information was found among the younger patients who got recovered after treatments. However, the elder patients still showed a lack of awareness of health information. Therefore, this paper suggested that all people should focus on building a knowledge system of health information before any symptoms show, identify health information sources and improve information assessment abilities when symptoms show, and pay more attention to psychological health against second victimization when they recover after treatment. The elderly patients should be aware of the effectiveness of health information, expand their health knowledge, and improve healthy information retrieving skills.

Key words: Health information literacy, Health information needs, Health information access, Health information assessment, Health information decisions