Assessing eHealth Literacy and Identifying Factors Influencing Its Adoption Among Cancer Inpatients: A Cross-Sectional Study in Guangdong Population

Figures & data

Table 1 Descriptive Statistics of Cancer Patients

Characteristic	Groups	Number	Percentage (%)
Gender	Male	68	58.10
	Female	49	41.90
Age	≤44 years old	28	23.90
	45–59 years old	46	39.30
	≥60 years old	43	36.80
Marriage Status	In Marriage	108	92.30
	Others	9	7.70
Education Background	Primary school and below	24	20.50
	Junior High School	45	38.50
	Senior High School	25	21.40
	College/Undergraduate or above	23	19.70
Personal monthly income	≤1000 RMB	48	41.00
	1001–3000 RMB	24	20.50
	3001–5000 RMB	18	15.40
	>5000 RMB	27	23.10
Household structure	Living alone	5	4.27
	Living with your spouse	56	47.86
	Living with 2 generations	33	28.21
	Living with grandchildren	23	19.66
Whether the family members have medical background	Yes	29	24.80
	No	88	75.20
Types of Cancer	Lung cancer	29	24.79
	Gastric cancer	16	13.68
	Colorectal cancer	20	17.09
	Breast cancer	10	8.55
	Others	42	35.90
Validation medical behavior	Never	56	47.86
	Occasionally	51	43.59
	Frequently	10	8.55
Frequency of searching health information	Never	26	22.20
	Seldom	32	27.40
	Sometimes	44	37.60
	Frequently	15	12.80

Table 2 eHealth Literacy for 117 Cancer Patients

Item	Score	Dimension	Score
Q1: I know how to find helpful health resources on the Internet	2.97±1.23	Application	14.86±5.25
Q2: I know how to use the Internet to answer my health questions	2.97±1.24
Q3: I know what health resources are available on the Internet	2.78±1.21
Q4: I know where to find helpful health resources on the Internet	2.63±1.19
Q5: I know how to use the health information I find on the Internet to help me	2.64±1.24
Q6: I have the skills I need to evaluate the health resources I find on the Internet	2.42±1.20	Judgement	5.20±2.31
Q7: I can tell high quality from low quality health resources on the Internet	2.41±1.20
Q8: I feel confident in using information from the Internet to make health decisions	2.50±1.20	Decision-making	2.50±1.20
Mean score	2.66±1.23
Total			21.32±8.35

Table 3 Comparison of eHealth Literacy with Different Characteristics of Patients

Variables	Groups	The Average Total Score of eHealth	F/t	P
Gender			t=1.616	0.109
	Male	22.37±8.32
	Female	19.86±8.26
Age group			F=4.036	0.020*
	≤44 years old	24.93±8.50
	45–59 years old	20.93±7.79
	≥60 years old	19.37±8.27
Marriage Status			t=1.682	0.095
	In Marriage	20.94±8.32
	Others	25.78±7.86
Education Background			F=8.570	<0.001*
	Primary school and below	15.71±7.78
	Junior High School	21.44±7.45
	Senior High School	21.24±7.80
	College/Undergraduate or above	27.00±7.68
Personal monthly income			F=4.104	0.008*
	≤1000 RMB	20.10±7.99
	1001–3000 RMB	17.92±7.05
	3001–5000 RMB	23.78±7.48
	>5000 RMB	24.85±9.20
Household structure			F=0.464	0.708
	Living alone	24.00±6.96
	Living with your spouse	20.65±8.15
	Living with 2 generations	22.24±8.44
	Living with grandchildren	21.30±9.20
Whether the family members have medical background			t=0.430	0.668
	Yes	21.90±9.23
	No	21.13±8.09
Types of Cancer			F=0.193	0.941
	Lung cancer	22.28±6.63
	Gastric cancer	20.13±8.65
	Colorectal cancer	21.55±8.43
	Breast cancer	21.40±5.84
	Others	20.98±9.90
Validation medical behavior			F=3.980	0.021*
	Never	19.11±8.72
	Occasionally	23.45±7.67
	Frequently	22.80±6.93
Frequency of searching health information			F=18.081	<0.001*
	Never	14.00±7.048
	Seldom	19.78±7.81
	Sometimes	24.34±6.61
	Frequently	28.40±5.71

Note: *Indication of statistically significant independent variables.

Table 4 Multiple Linear Regression of Factors Influencing eHealth Literacy of Patients

Variables	Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficientsβ	t	p
	β	SE
Constant term	13.846	2.378	–	5.822	<0.001*
Age group
≤44 years old
45–59 years old	−1.613	1.861	−0.094	−0.867	0.388
≥60 years old	−1.96	1.689	−0.115	−1.160	0.249
Validation medical behavior
Never
Occasionally	−0.777	2.465	−0.026	−0.315	0.753
Frequently	1.068	1.407	0.064	0.759	0.449
Frequency of searching health information
Never
Seldom	12.406	2.321	0.499	5.345	<0.001*
Sometimes	8.021	1.84	0.467	4.360	<0.001*
Frequently	5.212	1.829	0.279	2.851	0.005*
Personal monthly income
≤1000 RMB
1001–3000 RMB	1.291	1.94	0.065	0.665	0.507
3001–5000 RMB	0.944	1.97	0.041	0.479	0.633
>5000 RMB	−3.124	1.769	−0.152	−1.766	0.080
Education
Primary school and below
Junior High School	5.43	2.604	0.26	2.086	0.039*
Senior High School	2.443	2.173	0.12	1.124	0.263
Undergraduate or above	2.627	1.952	0.154	1.346	0.181

Note: *Indication of statistically significant independent variables.