Feng Wenfei, Zhang Jinguang
School of Journalism and Communication, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Center for Big Data and Public Communication, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 18;14:1197189. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1197189. eCollection 2023.
eHealth literacy-the ability to obtain, understand, evaluate, and use health information from the Internet-is important to maintaining and improving personal health. Prior research found that people differ notably in the levels of eHealth literacy, and this study tests a theoretical account of some of those individual differences. Drawing on life history theory, we propose that low eHealth literacy is partly the outcome of people adopting a resource-allocation strategy emphasizing early and fast reproduction, namely, a fast life-history strategy.
We conducted a cross-sectional survey study ( = 1,036) that measured Chinese adult respondents' eHealth literacy, childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability, and fast life-history strategy. Covariates included health-information seeking online, self-rated health, sex, age, education level, and monthly income.
Supporting a life-history explanation of eHealth literacy, childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability negatively predicted eHealth literacy through fast life-history strategy and mainly the insight-planning-control dimension of it. Harshness, not unpredictability, also directly and negatively predicted eHealth literacy after fast life-history strategy was controlled for.
Our findings suggest that the psychological mechanisms associated with human life-history strategies produce at least some of the individual differences in levels of eHealth literacy, including those related to neuroticism, socioeconomic status, self-rated health and social capital. Thus, a possible way to increase future generation's eHealth literacy and thereby their health is to reduce the harshness and unpredictability of the environment in which they grow up, thereby making them more likely to adopt a relatively slow life-history in their adulthood.
电子健康素养——即从互联网获取、理解、评估和使用健康信息的能力——对于维持和改善个人健康至关重要。先前的研究发现，人们在电子健康素养水平上存在显著差异，本研究检验了其中一些个体差异的理论解释。借鉴生命史理论，我们提出低电子健康素养部分是人们采用强调早期和快速繁殖的资源分配策略的结果，即快速生命史策略。
我们进行了一项横断面调查研究（n = 1036），测量了中国成年受访者的电子健康素养、童年环境的恶劣程度和不可预测性以及快速生命史策略。协变量包括在线寻求健康信息、自我评估的健康状况、性别、年龄、教育水平和月收入。
支持对电子健康素养的生命史解释，童年环境的恶劣程度和不可预测性通过快速生命史策略，主要是其洞察 - 规划 - 控制维度，对电子健康素养产生负向预测作用。在控制了快速生命史策略后，恶劣程度而非不可预测性也直接对电子健康素养产生负向预测作用。
我们的研究结果表明，与人类生命史策略相关的心理机制至少在一定程度上导致了电子健康素养水平的个体差异，包括与神经质、社会经济地位、自我评估的健康状况和社会资本相关的差异。因此，提高下一代电子健康素养从而改善其健康状况的一种可能方法是减少他们成长环境的恶劣程度和不可预测性，从而使他们在成年后更有可能采用相对缓慢的生命史。
