Alhewiti Abdullah
Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71491, Saudi Arabia.
Healthcare (Basel). 2025 Mar 12;13(6):616. doi: 10.3390/healthcare13060616.
The spread of health-related information across the internet necessitates an evaluation of public eHealth literacy, trust in different health information sources, including healthcare providers, and how eHealth literacy is related to trust in different sources.
407 individuals participated in a web-based survey in the Tabuk region of Saudi Arabia. Univariate analysis was used to evaluate the relationships between eHealth literacy and demographic variables, and multiple linear regression was used to measure the relationship between eHealth literacy and trust in health information sources after adjustment for demographic factors.
The average eHealth literacy of the respondents was 27.17 out of 40. eHealth literacy levels were higher among females, younger age groups, those in the higher-education category, and those with a chronic disease or currently on medication. For 51.9% of participants, physicians and healthcare workers were their main source of health information, while 40% considered the internet their main source. None of the study participants perceived physicians and healthcare workers as untrustworthy, and social media was the least trusted source. eHealth literacy was not related to trust in physicians and health workers but was positively associated with trust in specialized health websites and negatively associated with trust in social media.
The findings suggest that the public tends to prefer and trust physicians and other healthcare workers as a primary source of health information, regardless of their eHealth literacy levels. A higher eHealth literacy level was associated with trust in specialized health websites and distrust in social media.
健康相关信息在互联网上的传播使得有必要对公众的电子健康素养、对包括医疗服务提供者在内的不同健康信息来源的信任度，以及电子健康素养与对不同来源的信任度之间的关系进行评估。
407名个体参与了沙特阿拉伯塔布克地区的一项基于网络的调查。单因素分析用于评估电子健康素养与人口统计学变量之间的关系，多元线性回归用于在调整人口统计学因素后测量电子健康素养与对健康信息来源的信任度之间的关系。
受访者的平均电子健康素养在40分制中为27.17分。女性、较年轻年龄组、高等教育类别者以及患有慢性病或目前正在服药者的电子健康素养水平较高。对于51.9%的参与者来说，医生和医护人员是他们主要的健康信息来源，而40%的人认为互联网是他们主要的信息来源。没有一名研究参与者认为医生和医护人员不值得信任，社交媒体是最不受信任的来源。电子健康素养与对医生和医护人员的信任无关，但与对专业健康网站的信任呈正相关，与对社交媒体的信任呈负相关。
研究结果表明，无论电子健康素养水平如何，公众往往更喜欢并信任医生和其他医护人员作为主要的健康信息来源。较高的电子健康素养水平与对专业健康网站的信任以及对社交媒体的不信任有关。
