Electronic Health Literacy in Individuals with Chronic Pain and Its Association with Psychological Function

Abstract

Electronic health literacy skills and competences are important for empowering people to have an active role in making appropriate health care decisions. The aims of this cross-sectional study were to (1) examine the frequency of use of the Internet for seeking online information about chronic pain, (2) determine the level of eHealth literacy skills in the study sample, (3) identify the factors most closely associated with higher levels of eHealth literacy, and (4) examine self-efficacy as a potential mediator of the association between eHealth literacy and measures of pain and function in a sample of adults with chronic pain. One-hundred and sixty-one adults with chronic pain completed measures assessing internet use, eHealth literacy, pain interference, anxiety, depression, and pain-related self-efficacy. Results indicated that 70% of the participants are active users of the Internet for seeking information related to their health. The level of eHealth literacy skills was not statistically significantly associated with participants’ age or pain interference but was significantly negatively associated with both anxiety and depression. In addition, the findings showed that self-efficacy fully explained the relationship between eHealth literacy and depression and partially explained the relationship between eHealth literacy and anxiety. Self-efficacy should be considered as a treatment target in eHealth literacy interventions, due to its role in explaining the potential benefits of eHealth literacy.

The relationship between electronic health literacy and individual factors among adults with chronic pain: A cross-sectional study

“…Most of participants (94%, n=184) had high eHealth literacy with an eHEALS score of 26 or higher, which is consistent with previous studies with individuals facing chronic pain (Castarlenas et al, 2021) or other chronic conditions (Richtering et al, 2017). This is also consistent with participants being recruited online, thus most likely to be using internet resources.…”

“…For instance, being married and having less education can lead to reliance on family members as opposed to developing self-efficacy skills and potentially eHealth literacy. Nonetheless, regarding age more specifically, Castarlenas et al (Castarlenas et al, 2021) did not find that the level of eHealth literacy was associated with age in chronic pain patients. Indeed, another study with a cardiovascular population observed that this relationship seems to disappear when included in a logistic regression model to let "time spent on the internet" prevail (Richtering et al, 2017).…”

“…A survey regarding electronic health behaviors conducted in the United States among adults with a chronic disease reported that 75% of respondents were using the Web to obtain health information (Madrigal & Escoffery, 2019). Another study focused on individuals suffering from various chronic pain conditions reported that 70% of its participants were using internet actively to find health-related information (Castarlenas et al, 2021). eHealth literacy, therefore, is the ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic resources and apply such knowledge to address or solve a health problem (Norman & Skinner, 2006a, 2006b.…”

“…Thus, a logical extension of this research is to determine what factors are associated with eHealth literacy in this population. Recently, two studies found that self-efficacy was influencing eHealth literacy in individuals with chronic back pain and various other chronic pain-related conditions (Castarlenas et al, 2021;Rabenbauer & Mevenkamp, 2021). A study conducted in patients with various chronic conditions living in a low-income country (i.e., Ethiopia) concluded that higher education, living in an urban area, perceived good health status, higher income, daily internet use, good knowledge of availability and importance of online resources, positive attitude toward those resources and higher level of computer literacy were predictors positively associated with higher eHealth literacy level (Shiferaw et al, 2020).…”

Health Literacy Development among People with Chronic Diseases: Advancing the State of the Art and Learning from International Practices

“…The cross-sectional survey study “Electronic Health Literacy in Individuals with Chronic Pain and its Association with Psychological Function” by Castarlenas et al [ 11 ] examines the association between electronic health literacy (eHealth literacy) and health-related behaviours in people with chronic pain, not least because people with chronic illnesses make more frequent use of and rely on health information and services more than individuals without such conditions. According to the authors, the “good news” for clinical implications is that eHealth literacy can be learned, which is important for (electronic) health literacy development given the challenges that people have in finding good quality health information in the seemingly endless online information landscape.…”