Current Status and Influencing Factors of Digital Health Literacy among Community-dwelling Older Adults in Southwest China: A Cross-sectional Study (Preprint)
Authors: Liu Siqi , Zhao Hongyan , Fu Jingjing , Kong Dehui , Zhong Zhu , Hong Yan , Tan Jing , Luo Yu 
Published: January 2022

BACKGROUND

The rapid development of digital health has reduced the time and cost of medical treatment, bringing efficient and economical benefits. However, older adults all over the world, including China, are deficient in digital health knowledge and skills to varying degrees, which urgently requires the attention of health professionals. Improving the digital health literacy of older adults is an important way for older adults to actively integrate into the digital society and realize active aging.

OBJECTIVE

This study intends to take community-dwelling older adults in Chongqing, a megacity in southwest China as an example, to investigate the current status and influencing factors of their digital health literacy, so as to provide valuable theoretical reference for the global digital health research and the construction of gerontological digital health service models.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted from September 2020 to April 2021 in the main urban area of Chongqing, Southwest China. A total of 572 community-dwelling older adults (≥65 years old) were surveyed by stratified sampling. A unified questionnaire was used to investigate the sociodemographic characteristics, Internet usage, attitude towards Internet health information and digital health literacy of older adults. Wherein, the digital health literacy assessment adopted the Digital Health Literacy Assessment Scale for community-dwelling older adults, which is a localized assessment tool independently developed by the research group, and has been proved to have good reliability and validity. Univariate analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used to explore the influencing factors of digital health literacy of older adults.

RESULTS

In this study, the average score of digital health literacy of community-dwelling older adults was 37.10 (SD 18.65). The results of univariate analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in the comparison of community-dwelling older adults’ digital health literacy according to 16 variables, such as different ages and education levels (P<.01). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that education level, marital status, self-rated health status, degree of health concerns, duration of Internet usage, time spent using the Internet per day, frequency of Internet usage, frequency of receiving guidance passively from family members, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived reliability were positively correlated with digital health literacy, while age and perceived risk were negatively correlated with digital health literacy.

CONCLUSIONS

The overall digital health literacy of community-dwelling older adults in Southwest China is relatively low. In the future, health professionals should fully consider the diverse influencing factors of digital health literacy, assess individual differences accurately and provide targeted intervention programs. Meanwhile, global public health authorities should integrate health resources effectively, and seek a health service model for older adults in line with the development of the digital age, to narrow the digital divide and promote the development of active aging.