The Effect of Digital Literacy Education Given to Postmenopausal Women on Health Literacy and Quality of Life

During menopause, women may experience many conditions and symptoms due to fluctuation in hormone levels. These symptoms can affect a woman's social and personal functioning and quality of life. The symptoms and quality of life experienced by women during menopause are closely related to health literacy and digital literacy levels.

Women in the menopausal period often turn to alternative and complementary practices to cope with the symptoms. They obtain this information from Web 2.0 technologies (Instagram, Facebook, etc.) and other sources on the internet, along with the innovations brought by the developing world. However, they do not have enough skills to question the reliability and accuracy of the information sources they obtain. In this context, digital literacy emerges as a new concept in today's digital transformation. Digital Literacy is the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to use digital tools and possibilities appropriately to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyze and synthesize digital resources, create new information, create media expressions and communicate with others. With the developing technology and widespread use of the internet, the impact of the information obtained from digital platforms on the current health literacy and quality of life of women is gaining importance.

In the literature, it has been determined that the relationship between digital literacy, health literacy and quality of life has been examined in different samples such as the elderly and individuals with chronic diseases. However, no research has been found in the literature examining the effect of a planned digital literacy education specific to menopause on the health literacy and quality of life of postmenopausal women.

The age group in which the research is planned is a group that can use Web 2.0 technologies (Instagram, Facebook, etc.) and other sources on the internet, but we think that they have limited information about accessing information sources and examining the accuracy of the information they have obtained. In this context, we believe that a planned digital literacy education specific to menopause will increase the health literacy and quality of life of postmenopausal women.

Purpose of the Study: This study was planned as a randomized controlled experimental study to examine the effect of digital literacy education given to postmenopausal women on health literacy and quality of life.

Data Collection: The data will be collected by the researcher by face-to-face interview method in a total of 5 sessions, each session of 30 minutes.

Statistical Methods to be Used: SPSS program will be used in the analysis of the obtained data. The conformity of the data to the normal distribution will be examined by considering the Shapiro-Wilk test; Parametric methods will be used in the analysis of normally distributed variables, and non-parametric methods will be used in the analysis of non-normally distributed variables. Independent-Samples T test, Mann-Whitney U (Exact) test and T test for Dependent Groups, Wilcoxon test will be used in the comparison of 2 independent groups. PearsonCorrelation, Spearman'srho tests will be used to examine the correlations of the variables with each other. Comparison of categorical data will be tested with PearsonChi-Square and FisherExact tests.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Being between 45 - 65 years old,
* Being in the postmenopausal period
* Using a smart phone, tablet and/or computer
* Digital literacy level of 3.40 and below

Exclusion Criteria:

* Having a diagnosed psychiatric disorder
* Having a diagnosed cancer disease

  * Scale item total score is in the high range between 3.41-4.20 and very high between 4.21-5.00 (Ng, 2012).