Makowsky Mark J, Davachi Shahnaz, Jones Charlotte A
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Primary Health Care, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, AB, Canada.
JMIR Form Res. 2022 Mar 30;6(3):e29955. doi: 10.2196/29955.
Digital health interventions are efficient and flexible methods for enhancing the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. However, little is known about the characteristics associated with eHealth literacy in the Canadian South Asian population.
The aim of this study is to describe perceived eHealth literacy and explore the extent to which it is associated with sociodemographic, health status, and technology use variables in a subset of South Asian Canadians.
We analyzed data from the e-Patient Project survey, a mixed-mode cross-sectional survey that occurred in 2014. The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) was used to measure eHealth literacy in a convenience sample of 511 English- or Punjabi-speaking South Asian adults recruited from a community pharmacy, a family physician office, and community events in Edmonton, Alberta. Multivariable quantile regression was used to explore variables associated with eHealth literacy.
The analysis was restricted to 301 internet users (mean age 39.9, SD 14.8 years; 166/301, 55.1% female) who provided responses to all 8 eHEALS questions and complete demographic information. The mean overall eHEALS score was 29.3 (SD 6.8) out of 40, and 71.4% (215/301) agreed to at least 5 out of the 8 eHEALS items. The eHEALS item with the lowest level of agreement was "I can tell high-quality health resources from low-quality health resources on the internet" (182/301, 60.5%). Although there were statistically significant differences in eHEALS scores according to age, educational achievement, language preference, and the presence of chronic medical conditions, multivariable regression analysis indicated that language preference was the only variable independently associated with eHealth literacy (coefficient -6.0, 95% CI -9.61 to -2.39).
In our sample of South Asian Canadian internet users, preference for written health information in languages other than English was associated with lower eHealth literacy. Opportunities exist to improve eHealth literacy using culturally and linguistically tailored interventions.
数字健康干预是增强心血管疾病和2型糖尿病预防与管理的高效且灵活的方法。然而，对于加拿大南亚人群中与电子健康素养相关的特征知之甚少。
本研究旨在描述感知到的电子健康素养，并探讨其在一部分加拿大南亚人群中与社会人口统计学、健康状况及技术使用变量的关联程度。
我们分析了2014年开展的一项混合模式横断面调查——电子患者项目调查的数据。使用电子健康素养量表（eHEALS）对从艾伯塔省埃德蒙顿市的一家社区药房、一家家庭医生诊所及社区活动中招募的511名讲英语或旁遮普语的南亚成年便利样本进行电子健康素养测量。采用多变量分位数回归来探究与电子健康素养相关的变量。
分析仅限于301名互联网用户（平均年龄39.9岁，标准差14.8岁；166/301，55.1%为女性），他们对eHEALS的所有8个问题都给出了回答并提供了完整的人口统计学信息。eHEALS的总体平均得分为40分中的29.3分（标准差6.8），71.4%（215/301）的人对eHEALS的8个项目中至少5个表示认同。认同度最低的eHEALS项目是“我能在互联网上区分高质量和低质量的健康资源”（182/301，60.5%）。尽管根据年龄、教育程度、语言偏好和慢性疾病状况，eHEALS得分存在统计学上的显著差异，但多变量回归分析表明，语言偏好是唯一与电子健康素养独立相关的变量（系数-6.0，95%置信区间-9.61至-2.39）。
在我们的加拿大南亚互联网用户样本中，对非英语书面健康信息的偏好与较低的电子健康素养相关。存在通过文化和语言定制的干预措施来提高电子健康素养的机会。
