Kirubel Biruk Shiferaw|Binyam Tilahun|Berhanu Fikadie Endehabtu|Monika Knudsen Gullslett|Shegaw Anagaw Mengiste
E-health literacy and associated factors among chronic patients in a low-income country: a cross-sectional survey
Debre Markos University|University of Gondar|University of Gondar|University of South-Eastern Norway|University of South-Eastern Norway
abstract background chronic patients persistently seek health information internet medication information seeking nutrition disease management information regarding disease preventive actions consumers ability search find appraise use health information internet known ehealth literacy skill ehealth literacy congregate set six basic skills traditional literacy health literacy information literacy scientific literacy media literacy computer literacy aim study assess ehealth literacy level associated factors among internet user chronic patients northwest ethiopia methods institutional based crosssectional study design conducted stratified sampling technique used select 423 study participants among chronic patients ehealth literacy scale eheals used data collection eheals validated eightitem likert scaled questionnaire used asses selfreported capability ehealth consumers find appraise use health related information internet solve health problems statistical package social science version 20 used data entry analysis multivariable logistic regression used examine association ehealth literacy skill associated factors significance obtained 95 ci p lt 005 result total 423 study subjects approached included study february may 2019 response rate survey 953 majority respondents 268 663 males mean age 3558 148 years multivariable logistic regression model indicated participants higher education least diploma likely possess high ehealth literacy skill adjusted odds ratio aor 348 95 ci 154 787 similarly government employee aor 171 95 ci 111 268 urban resident aor 137 95 ci 054 349 perceived good health status aor 397 95 ci 138 1138 higher income aor 444 95 ci 132 1486 daily internet use aor 296 95 ci 108 676 good knowledge availability importance online resources aor 312 95 ci 161 53 positive attitude toward online resources aor 294 95 ci 107 352 higher level computer literacy aor 381 95 ci 219 661 predictors positively associated higher ehealth literacy level conclusion besides mounting indication efficacy present data confirm internet use ehealth literacy level chronic patients setting relatively low clearly implicate need fill skill gap ehealth literacy among chronic patients might help finding evaluating relevant online sources healthrelated decisions