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Objective: Health literacy and health insurance literacy affect healthcare utilization. The purpose of this study was to determine the relation between health insurance knowledge, self-efficacy, and student healthcare utilization in the past year. Participants: A random sample of 1,450 respondents, over the age of 18, attending a public university in the southeastern United States completed a survey in March 2017. Methods: A model was constructed to test the effect of health insurance self-efficacy on the relation between knowledge and healthcare utilization in the past year. Results: Health insurance knowledge (M = 5.8, range 0–10) and self-efficacy (M = 2.48, range 1–4) were low. Self-efficacy was a significant moderator when explaining healthcare utilization in the past year. Conclusions: College students have low knowledge and self-efficacy regarding health insurance. These findings can be used for developing policies and self-efficacy-based health education programs that may increase student healthcare utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: HIV-related stigma is one of the strongest barriers to prevention and treatment. HIV prevalence in U.S. college students is estimated around 0.02%, but is thought to be drastically underreported. We examined the influence of HIV knowledge on the relationship between HIV testing history and stigma in college students. Participants: A random sample of 2343 students, over the age of 18, attending a large university in the southeastern United States completed the survey in January 2016. Methods: A mediation model was constructed in regression framework to explore the relationship between HIV testing history, knowledge, and stigma. Results: HIV testing history was associated with higher knowledge scores (a path: B = 4.08, p <.001) and higher knowledge scores were associated with lower stigma (b path: B =.01, p <.001). These results suggest that HIV knowledge partially mediates the relation between HIV testing history and stigma in college students. Conclusions: HIV testing history may decrease stigma by increasing knowledge. Results can be used to inform college health promotion practice on developing programs and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]