eHealth Literacy and General Interest in Using Online Health Information: A Survey Among Patients with Dental Diseases

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study is to explore the eHealth literacy and general interest in using eHealth information among patients with dental diseases. METHODS: A total of 171 patients with dental diseases completed the survey including the eHEALS. The effect of participants' age, gender and education on eHealth literacy was assessed. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was also used to assess the correlation between the importance of access to health information and the usefulness of the internet for decision-making. RESULTS: The mean score of eHealth literacy in the participants was 30.55 (SD=4.069). The participants' age has significant effect on eHealth literacy level (t=3.573, P-value=0.002). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the total score of eHealth literacy and the importance of access to eHealth information (r=0.33, n=171, P<0.s001). The difference in eHealth literacy in terms of educational background showed no statistically significant differences (F=1.179, P-value=0.322). DISCUSSION: The participants had a high level of eHealth literacy. Determining eHealth literacy among dental patients leads to a better understanding of their problems in health decision-making. CONCLUSION: Dental institutions efforts should aim to raise awareness on online health information quality and to encourage patients to use evaluation tools, especially among low electronic health literate patients.