Analysis of eHealth literacy and its influencing factors among the elderly

Objective  To investigate the current status and influencing factors associated with the health literacy of the elderly. Methods  24 communities were randomly selected from Jinan City, and 1 201 elderly people were surveyed by the eHealth literacy scale. Univariate analysis was performed using the Chi-square test and multivariate analysis was performed using binary Logistic regression. Results  The qualification rate of eHealth literacy among 1 201 older adults was 11.1%. Multivariate analysis showed that primary school education and below (OR=4.50, 95% CI: 1.924-10.530, P=0.001), family pension (OR=3.08, 95% CI: 1.326-7.165, P=0.009), poor self-rated health (OR=2.12, 95% CI: 1.022-4.406, P=0.044), great self-rated life pressure (OR=4.09, 95% CI: 1.686-9.938, P=0.002) were risk factors for eHealth literacy in the elderly; urban household registration (OR=0.52, 95% CI: 0.337-0.815, P=0.004), the main person to taking care of grandchildren (OR=0.43, 95% CI: 0.273-0.682, P Conclusion  The type of household registration, the level of education, the type of medical insurance, the way of caring for grandchildren, the way of providing for the elderly, the self-rated of health status, with the parents being alive, and the self-rated life pressure are the influencing factors of the eHealth literacy of the elderly.