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Factors associated with eHealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in South Korea

BACKGROUND: Digital technology has dramatically changed the world in which we live, and the ability to access and understand information through these new technologies is becoming increasingly important. eHealth literacy is closely related to digital literacy, and some concepts may overlap to a cert...

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Autores principales: Lee, Jaegyeong, Tak, Sunghee H
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9125061/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35615270
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20552076221102765
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author Lee, Jaegyeong
Tak, Sunghee H
author_facet Lee, Jaegyeong
Tak, Sunghee H
author_sort Lee, Jaegyeong
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Digital technology has dramatically changed the world in which we live, and the ability to access and understand information through these new technologies is becoming increasingly important. eHealth literacy is closely related to digital literacy, and some concepts may overlap to a certain extent. Identifying personal and digital-related factors related to eHealth literacy levels in middle-aged adults would be useful for planning tailored interventions and health promotion strategies. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify the differences in digital literacy and eHealth literacy levels according to demographic features, and to elucidate the factors associated with eHealth literacy in the middle-aged population. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional, observational study from 4th to 8th February 2021. A total of 320 South Korean participants aged 40–64 years were recruited and completed an online questionnaire, where demographic features, chronic disease status, frequency of Internet use, digital skills, digital competence, and eHealth literacy were measured. eHealth literacy was measured with the eHEALS. We used multiple regression analysis to elucidate the factors associated with eHealth literacy. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis revealed that digital competence was the highest contributor to an individual's eHealth literacy (β = 0.330, P < 0.001), while digital skills was not significantly associated with eHealth literacy (β = 0.086, P = 0.267). In addition, eHealth literacy was positively associated with increasing age (β = 0.258, P < 0.001), female gender (β = −0.118, P = 0.022), and higher education levels (β = 0.114, P = 0.041), while marital state, chronic disease, and frequency of internet use were not significantly associated with eHealth literacy. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides valuable information on digital literacy and eHealth literacy in middle-aged adults and may be used to guide tailored interventions for improving eHealth literacy. Future studies should consider the differences in digital literacy levels across generations when assessing eHealth literacy or planning digital health interventions.
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spelling pubmed-91250612022-05-24 Factors associated with eHealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in South Korea Lee, Jaegyeong Tak, Sunghee H Digit Health Original Research BACKGROUND: Digital technology has dramatically changed the world in which we live, and the ability to access and understand information through these new technologies is becoming increasingly important. eHealth literacy is closely related to digital literacy, and some concepts may overlap to a certain extent. Identifying personal and digital-related factors related to eHealth literacy levels in middle-aged adults would be useful for planning tailored interventions and health promotion strategies. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify the differences in digital literacy and eHealth literacy levels according to demographic features, and to elucidate the factors associated with eHealth literacy in the middle-aged population. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional, observational study from 4th to 8th February 2021. A total of 320 South Korean participants aged 40–64 years were recruited and completed an online questionnaire, where demographic features, chronic disease status, frequency of Internet use, digital skills, digital competence, and eHealth literacy were measured. eHealth literacy was measured with the eHEALS. We used multiple regression analysis to elucidate the factors associated with eHealth literacy. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis revealed that digital competence was the highest contributor to an individual's eHealth literacy (β = 0.330, P < 0.001), while digital skills was not significantly associated with eHealth literacy (β = 0.086, P = 0.267). In addition, eHealth literacy was positively associated with increasing age (β = 0.258, P < 0.001), female gender (β = −0.118, P = 0.022), and higher education levels (β = 0.114, P = 0.041), while marital state, chronic disease, and frequency of internet use were not significantly associated with eHealth literacy. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides valuable information on digital literacy and eHealth literacy in middle-aged adults and may be used to guide tailored interventions for improving eHealth literacy. Future studies should consider the differences in digital literacy levels across generations when assessing eHealth literacy or planning digital health interventions. SAGE Publications 2022-05-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9125061/ /pubmed/35615270 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20552076221102765 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work as published without adaptation or alteration, without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research
Lee, Jaegyeong
Tak, Sunghee H
Factors associated with eHealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in South Korea
title Factors associated with eHealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in South Korea
title_full Factors associated with eHealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in South Korea
title_fullStr Factors associated with eHealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in South Korea
title_full_unstemmed Factors associated with eHealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in South Korea
title_short Factors associated with eHealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in South Korea
title_sort factors associated with ehealth literacy focusing on digital literacy components: a cross-sectional study of middle-aged adults in south korea
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9125061/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35615270
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20552076221102765
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