Donelle Lorie, Hiebert Brad, Hall Jodi
College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States.
Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Front Digit Health. 2024 Jan 25;5:1212694. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1212694. eCollection 2023.
Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, parents were expected to understand increasingly sophisticated information about health issues and healthcare systems and access online resources as a part of their caregiving role. Yet little is known about parents' online digital technology use and digital health literacy skill. This study aimed to investigate parents' digital technology use, their self-reported digital health literacy skill, and demographic information as potential factors influencing their use of digital technologies.
An online survey utilizing convenience sampling was administered to new parents during the COVID-19 pandemic that inquired about their demographic information, digital technology use, and digital health literacy skills within Ontario, Canada.
A total of 151 individuals responded to the survey; these were primarily mothers (80%) who self-reported as white (72%), well-educated 86%), heterosexual (86%) females (85%) with incomes over $100,00 per year (48%). Participants reported consistent and persistent online activity related to their parenting role and mostly via mobile smartphone devices (92%). Participants had moderate to high digital health literacy skills, greater than the Canadian national average. Almost half of participants reported negative health and well-being consequences from their digital online behaviours. There were no significant relationships between technology use, digital health literacy skill, and demographic variables.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the need for and importance of effective and equitable digital health services. Important opportunities exist within clinical practice and among parenting groups to proactively address the physical and mental health implications of digital parenting practices. Equally important are opportunities to insert into clinical workflow the inquiry into parents' online information-seeking behaviours, and to include digital health literacy as part of prenatal/postnatal health education initiatives.
特别是在新冠疫情期间，人们期望父母能够理解关于健康问题和医疗保健系统日益复杂的信息，并将访问在线资源作为其护理角色的一部分。然而，对于父母使用在线数字技术的情况以及数字健康素养技能，我们知之甚少。本研究旨在调查父母对数字技术的使用、他们自我报告的数字健康素养技能以及人口统计学信息，这些都是影响他们使用数字技术的潜在因素。
在新冠疫情期间，对加拿大安大略省的新父母进行了一项采用便利抽样的在线调查，询问他们的人口统计学信息、数字技术使用情况以及数字健康素养技能。
共有151人回复了该调查；这些人主要是母亲（80%），她们自我报告为白人（72%）、受过良好教育（86%）、异性恋（86%）、女性（85%），年收入超过10万美元（48%）。参与者报告称，与育儿角色相关的在线活动持续且频繁，并且大多通过移动智能手机设备进行（92%）。参与者具备中等至高的数字健康素养技能，高于加拿大全国平均水平。近一半的参与者报告称，他们的数字在线行为对健康和幸福感产生了负面影响。技术使用、数字健康素养技能和人口统计学变量之间没有显著关系。
新冠疫情强化了有效且公平的数字健康服务的必要性和重要性。在临床实践和育儿群体中，存在着积极应对数字育儿实践对身心健康影响的重要机会。同样重要的是，有机会在临床工作流程中询问父母的在线信息搜索行为，并将数字健康素养纳入产前/产后健康教育倡议的一部分。
