Objective To examine the status and influencing factors of e-health literacy among residents aged 15 years and above in Tai′an municipality of Shandong province for providing references to the construction of Healthy Tai′an.
Methods Using multistage random cluster sampling, we conducted a face-to-face questionnaire survey among 8 500 urban and rural residents aged ≥ 15 years in 6 prefectures/counties/districts of Tai′an municipality during August 2020. The E-Health Literacy Scale (eHEALS) – Chinese Version, Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS) and a self-designed general questionnaire were adopted in the study.
Results For all the residents, the overall score of eHEALS was 16.99 ± 12.07 and the dimension scores were 10.78 ± 7.93, 4.14 ± 2.95, and 2.06 ± 1.48 for e-health literacy-related application, judgment, and decision-making ability, respectively. The results of multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that the residents with the education of junior high school and above, being employed, having an household income of more than 30 000 yuan RMB in 2019, and with a higher perceived social support were more likely to have a high e-health literacy; while the residents aged 40 years and above, living in rural areas, suffering from chronic diseases, with medical security for urban/rural residents or without medical security/medical security other than the security for urban/rural residents were more likely to have a low e-health literacy.
Conclusion Among the residents aged 15 years and above in Tai′an municipality, the e-health literacy is at a relatively low level and mainly influenced by age, education, living area, employment, household income in 2019, whether suffering from chronic disease, medical security, and perceived social support.
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