Associations among eHealth literacy, social support, individual resilience, and emotional status in primary care providers during the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to investigate eHealth literacy among primary care providers (PCPs) and explore its association with social support, individual resilience, anxiety, and depression during an outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in Guangzhou, China. Methods A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted in 18 community healthcare centers in Guangzhou, China. The responses of 600 PCPs were tagged as valid responses. Information pertaining to their background, eHealth literacy, anxiety, depression levels, social support, and individual resilience was also collected. Multilevel analysis was used to determine the association among the measures to account for the nested random effect of community health centers in different districts. Results Participants showed a moderate self-perceived level of eHealth literacy ( M = 30, SD = 5.8). Participants who reported higher levels of eHealth literacy were more likely to exhibit lower levels of anxiety and depression, higher social support, and greater resilience. After adjusting for background characteristics, the results of the multilevel logistic analysis showed that eHealth literacy was significantly associated with anxiety and depression, social support, and individual resilience. Younger participants and those who were highly educated reported enhanced eHealth literacy. Conclusions This study presents a baseline reference for eHealth literacy among Chinese PCPs. Improving their ability to search for and use reliable web-based information was beneficial for facilitating perceived social support and raising resilience during the pandemic. Strategies to provide high-quality web-based information to PCPs to self-assess and identify psychological distress at an early stage should be encouraged.

Relationship Between Electronic Health Literacy and Self-Management in People With Type 2 Diabetes Using a Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…The findings of this study support a direct relationship between eHealth literacy and social support, which is consistent with previous findings showing a relationship between higher eHealth literacy levels and greater social support (K. A. Kim et al, 2018; Xu et al, 2022). The findings in this study may be associated with individuals with higher eHealth literacy being able to better communicate and share information with each other in Web 2.0, which increases perceived social support.…”

“…These resources may be instrumental (tangible goods or services), informational (education or advice), appraisal (affirmation), or emotional (affection; Langford et al, 1997). In previous studies, eHealth literacy was found to relate positively with social support in patients with congestive heart failure (Chuang et al, 2019) and in primary health providers (Xu et al, 2022).…”

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