scholarly journals eHealth literacy and general interest in using online Health information: a survey among patients with dental diseases

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeideh Valizadeh-Haghi ◽  
Shahabedin Rahmatizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
General Interest ◽  
P Value ◽  
Ehealth Literacy ◽  
Dental Patients ◽  
Dental Diseases ◽  
High Level

Objectives: The aim of the study is to explore the eHealth literacy and general interest in using eHealth information among patients with dental diseases.Methods: A total of 171 patients with dental diseases completed the survey including the eHEALS. The effect of participants' age, gender and education on eHealth literacy was assessed. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was also used to assess the correlation between the importance of access to health information and the usefulness of the internet for decision-making.Results: The mean score of eHealth literacy in the participants was 30.55 (SD=4.069). The participants' age has significant effect on eHealth literacy level (t=3.573, P-value=0.002). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the total score of eHealth literacy and the importance of access to eHealth information (r=0.33, n=171, P<0.s001). The difference in eHealth literacy in terms of educational background showed no statistically significant differences (F=1.179, P-value=0.322).Discussion: the participants had a high level of eHealth literacy. Determining eHealth literacy among dental patients leads to a better understanding of their problems in health decision-making.Conclusion: Dental institutions efforts should aim to raise awareness on online health information quality and to encourage patients to use evaluation tools, especially among low electronic health literate patients.

Electronic Health Literacy among Patients with Dental Diseases

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeideh Valizadeh-Haghi ◽  
Shahabedin Rahmatizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
General Interest ◽  
P Value ◽  
Ehealth Literacy ◽  
Dental Patients ◽  
Dental Diseases ◽  
Electronic Health

To explore eHealth literacy and general interest in using eHealth information among patients with dental diseases. A total of 171 patients with dental diseases completed the survey including the eHEALS. The effect of participants' age, gender and education on eHealth literacy was assessed. Spearman&rsquo;s correlation coefficient was also used to assess the correlation between the importance of access to health information and the usefulness of the internet for decision-making. The mean score of eHealth literacy in the participants was 30.55 (SD = 4.069) which shows that the participants had a high level of eHealth literacy. The participants' age has significant effect on eHealth literacy level (t = 3.573, P-value = 0.002). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the total score of eHealth literacy and the importance of access to eHealth information (r = 0.33, n = 171, P &lt; 0.001). The difference in eHealth literacy in terms of educational background showed no statistically significant differences (F = 1.179, P-value = 0.322). Determining eHealth literacy among dental patients leads to a better understanding of their problems in health decision-making. Furthermore, Dental institutions efforts should aim to raise awareness on online health information quality and to encourage patients to use evaluation tools, especially among low electronic health literate patients.

A Tool for Quantifying the Quality of Online Health Information on Student Health Center Websites (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anagha Kulkarni ◽  
Mike Wong ◽  
Tejasvi Belsare ◽  
Risha Shah ◽  
Diana Yu Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Health Center ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
Student Health ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Student Health Center

BACKGROUND The Internet has become a major source of health information especially for adolescents and young adults. Unfortunately, inaccurate, incomplete or outdated health information is widespread online. Often adolescents and young adults turn to authoritative websites such as the student health center (SHC) website of the university they are attending to obtain reliable health information. Although most on-campus SHC clinics comply with the American College Health Association (ACHA) standards, their websites are not subject to any standards or code of conduct. In the absence of quality standards or guidelines, the monitoring and compliance processes do not exist for SHC websites either. As such, there is no oversight on the health information published on the SHC websites by any central governing body. OBJECTIVE Our objective is to enable researchers to monitor online information quality at scale. We have created a tool that can efficiently quantify the quality of information posted on SHC websites about a health topic. Specifically, this quantitative tool provides information on quality, such as reading ease, coverage of the topic, and the degree of fact-based objective information. METHODS Our cross-functional team has designed and developed an open-source software, QMOHI: Quantitative Measures of Online Health Information, using the Agile software development methodology. The QMOHI tool finds the SHC website and gathers information on the specific health topic of interest from a prespecified list of university websites. Based on the retrieved text, the tool computes eight different quality metrics. The QMOHI tool is a fully automated tool that is designed to be scalable, generalizable, and robust. RESULTS The first empirical evaluation shows that the QMOHI tool is highly scalable and substantially more efficient than the manual approach of assessing online information quality. The second experimental results demonstrate QMOHI’s ability to work effectively with starkly different health topics (COVID, Cancer, LARC, and Condom) and with narrowly focused topics (hormonal IUD and copper IUD); thereby establishing the generalizability and versatility of the tool. The results from the last experiment demonstrate that QMOHI is not vulnerable to typical structural changes that SHC websites may undergo (e.g. URL changes) over a long period of time. QMOHI is able to support longitudinal studies by being robust to such website changes. CONCLUSIONS QMOHI allows public health researchers and practitioners to conduct large-scale studies of SHC websites that were previously too time intensive. The capability to generalize broadly or focus narrowly allows for wide applications of QMOHI, equipping researchers to study both mainstream and underexplored health topics. QMOHI’s ability to robustly analyze SHC websites periodically facilitates longitudinal investigations and monitor SHC progress. QMOHI serves as a launching pad for our future work that aims to develop a broadly applicable public health tool for online health information studies with potential applications far beyond SHC websites.

scholarly journals Veterinarians' information Prescription and Clients' eHealth Literacy

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niloofar Solhjoo ◽  
Nader Naghshineh ◽  
Fatima Fahimnia
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Veterinary Services ◽  
Ehealth Literacy ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Pet Owners ◽  
Directed Information ◽  
Positive Feelings ◽  
Client Communication

Introduction: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between pet owner’s combined knowledge, comfort, and perceived skills at finding, evaluating, applying online pet health information, and the application of the information prescription (IP) provided for pet owners education on the internet. Methods: Thirty telephone interviews were conducted followed by a questionnaire of eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) with pet owners after receiving an IP with a suggested websites in addition to their customary veterinary services in a vet clinic at the center of Tehran, Iran. Qualitative and quantitative data were merged to explore differences and similarities among respondents with different eHealth literacy levels. Results: Results indicate that pet owners with higher score of eHealth literacy more accessed the suggested websites and reported positive feelings about this addition to their veterinary services. Similarly, among the eight-item self-reported eHealth Literacy skills, perceived skills at evaluating and applying, were significantly associated with the use of IPs. Lastly eHealth literacy level was significantly associated with the outcomes of prescribed information, such as veterinarians-client communication outcome and learning outcomes.  Conclusion: Disparities in application of the veterinarian’s IPs for online pet healthcare information, and its outcomes are associated with different eHealth literacy skills. Veterinarians should collaborate with information specialists and librarians to perform education efforts to raise awareness on online pet health information quality and impact of veterinarian directed information prescription especially among low health literate owners.

scholarly journals Where else would I look for it? A five-country qualitative study on purposes, strategies, and consequences of online health information seeking

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Diviani ◽  
Eva Haukeland Fredriksen ◽  
Corine S. Meppelink ◽  
Judy Mullan ◽  
Warren Rich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
The Body ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Ehealth Literacy ◽  
Digital Divides

Background. Online health information (OHI) is widely available and consulted by many people in Western countries to gain health advice. The main goal of the present study is to provide a detailed account of the experiences among people from various demographic backgrounds living in high-income countries, who have used OHI. Design and methods. Thematic analysis of 165 qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted among OHI users residing in Australia, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland was performed. Results. The lived experience of people using OHI seem not to differ across countries. The interviews show that searches for OHI are motivated from curiosity, sharing of experiences, or affirmation for actions already taken. Most people find it difficult to appraise the information, leading them to cross-check sources or discuss OHI with others. OHI seems to impact mostly some specific types of health behaviors, such as changes in diet or physical activity, while it only plays a complementary role for more serious health concerns. Participants often check OHI before seeing their GP, but are reluctant to discuss online content with health care personnel due to expected negative reception. Conclusions. This study adds to the body of knowledge on eHealth literacy by demonstrating how OHI affects overall health behavior, strengthens patients’ ability to understand, live with, and prepare themselves for diverse health challenges. The increasing digitalization of health communication and health care calls for further research on digital divides and patient-professional relations. Health care professionals should acknowledge OHI seeking and engage in discussions with patients to enable them to appreciate OHI, and to support shared decision making in health care. The professionals can utilize patient’s desire to learn as a resource for health prevention, promotion or treatment, and empowerment.

Exploring the Items for Measuring the Consumers’ Behavior in Online Health Information-Seeking via E-Health Websites Constructs: An Exploratory Factor Analysis (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHARIFAH SUMAYYAH ENGKU ALWI ◽  
MASRAH AZRIFAH AZMI MURAD ◽  
SALFARINA ABDULLAH ◽  
AZRINA KAMARUDDIN
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Exploratory Factor Analysis ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Reduction Technique ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
P Value ◽  
Health Information Seeking ◽  
Online Health Information Seeking

BACKGROUND Advance technological breakthroughs have dramatically contributed to the nature of the healthcare environment paired with current concerns arise over patients’ health information seeking and how to seek them effectively; the e-health systems are gaining the attention of more and more people. OBJECTIVE The primary objective of this study was to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to validate questionnaire instruments for measuring the consumers’ behavior in online health information-seeking via e-health websites. METHODS The questionnaire was refined and modified from sixteen different studies. Survey questionnaires were randomly distributed to consumers at public places (such as hospitals and universities) in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Over three weeks, 100 participants were recruited. EFA was performed using Principal Component Analysis as a variable reduction technique. RESULTS The results of the analysis showed that all of the twelve constructs consist of only one component or dimension. The value of factor loading for every item in each construct is more than 0.6, which represents that the factor extracts sufficient variance from that item. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy was higher than 0.6 for all the constructs, which demonstrate that the sample size is adequate. For all constructs, the P-value from Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity is lower than the significance level (<.05), which indicates that the dataset is suitable for a data reduction technique. For the entire constructs’ items, Cronbach’s Alpha value was higher than 0.7, which demonstrates the reliability of all items. CONCLUSIONS This study has established in developing a valid and reliable instrument for measuring online consumers’ health information-seeking behavior via e-health websites.

Exploring the human factors for mindfulness in mHealth service usage: An Elaboration Likelihood Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 026666692110203
Author(s):  
Xinghan Wu ◽  
Xitong Guo ◽  
He Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Elaboration Likelihood Model ◽  
Elaboration Likelihood ◽  
Service Usage ◽  
Ehealth Literacy ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Likelihood Model ◽  
High Level

MHealth service is widely accepted as a good path towards healthcare promotion. However, patients’ low-level usage restricted its effectiveness. This work draws upon the elaboration likelihood model and mindfulness theory to investigate the mindfulness mechanism in mHealth service usage, which highlights: First, both perceived information quality and mindfulness positively affect mHealth service usage. Also, perceived information quality is observed to affect the establishment of mindfulness positively. These findings stress that both perceived information quality and mindfulness are essential for mHealth service usage. Second, peer patient influence and physicians’ recommendations positively affect the establishment of mindfulness. These findings stress that human factors are essential for consumers’ establishment of mindfulness. Third, mindfulness mediates the relationship between human factors and mHealth service usage. This phenomenon indicates that when consumers adopt a mHealth service, both peer patient influence and physicians’ recommendations have a positive impact on mHealth service usage indirectly. Fourth, the effects of both peer patient influence and physicians’ recommendations on mindfulness depend on patients’ perceived eHealth literacy levels. This finding illustrates that while peer patient influence is especially crucial for improving mindfulness in a cohort with a high-level perceived eHealth literacy, physicians’ recommendations are especially crucial for improving mindfulness in a cohort with low-level perceived eHealth literacy.

scholarly journals Consumer Evaluation of the Quality of Online Health Information: Systematic Literature Review of Relevant Criteria and Indicators (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yalin Sun ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Jacek Gwizdka ◽  
Ciaran B. Trace
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Quality Evaluation ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Consumer Evaluation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
User Groups

BACKGROUND As the quality of online health information remains questionable, there is a pressing need to understand how consumers evaluate this information. Past reviews identified content-, source-, and individual-related factors that influence consumer judgment in this area. However, systematic knowledge concerning the evaluation process, that is, why and how these factors influence the evaluation behavior, is lacking. OBJECTIVE This review aims (1) to identify criteria (rules that reflect notions of value and worth) that consumers use to evaluate the quality of online health information and the indicators (properties of information objects to which criteria are applied to form judgments) they use to support the evaluation in order to achieve a better understanding of the process of information quality evaluation and (2) to explicate the relationship between indicators and criteria to provide clear guidelines for designers of consumer health information systems. METHODS A systematic literature search was performed in seven digital reference databases including Medicine, Psychology, Communication, and Library and Information Science to identify empirical studies that report how consumers directly and explicitly describe their evaluation of online health information quality. Thirty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria. A qualitative content analysis was performed to identify quality evaluation criteria, indicators, and their relationships. RESULTS We identified 25 criteria and 165 indicators. The most widely reported criteria used by consumers were trustworthiness, expertise, and objectivity. The indicators were related to source, content, and design. Among them, 114 were positive indicators (entailing positive quality judgments), 35 were negative indicators (entailing negative judgments), and 16 indicators had both positive and negative quality influence, depending on contextual factors (eg, source and individual differences) and criteria applied. The most widely reported indicators were site owners/sponsors; consensus among multiple sources; characteristics of writing and language; advertisements; content authorship; and interface design. CONCLUSIONS Consumer evaluation of online health information is a complex cost-benefit analysis process that involves the use of a wide range of criteria and a much wider range of quality indicators. There are commonalities in the use of criteria across user groups and source types, but the differences are hard to ignore. Evidently, consumers’ health information evaluation can be characterized as highly subjective and contextualized, and sometimes, misinformed. These findings invite more research into how different user groups evaluate different types of online sources and a personalized approach to educate users about evaluating online health information quality.

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