E-health literacy and its influencing factors among middle-aged and elderly community residents in different regions of Tai′an city

Abstract

Objective To investigate current situation and influencing factors of e-health literacy among middle-aged and elderly community residents in various regions of Tai′an municipality, Shandong province for providing evidences to the improvement of e-health literacy in the population. Methods Using multistage random cluster sampling, we conducted a face-to-face questionnaire survey among 6 652 urban and rural residents aged ≥ 45 years and above in 6 prefectures/counties/districts of Tai′an municipality during August 2020. The E-Health Literacy Scale (e-HEALS) – Chinese Version and a self-designed general questionnaire were adopted in the study. Results For all the participants, the overall score of e-HEALS was 13.19 ± 9.71 and the overall score of the urban participants was significantly higher than that of the rural participants (15.44 ± 11.15 vs. 12.44 ± 9.06, t = 9.937; P Conclusion Among middle-aged and elderly community residents in Tai′an city, the e-health literacy of the urban dwellers is higher than that of rural dwellers and age, education, household income in 2019, self-rated health, and whether suffering from chronic disease are main influencing factors of e-health literacy for both urban and rural dwellers.