Playing catch up! The race between ehealth literacy and eHealth

Playing catch up! The race between eHealth literacy and eHealth

By Nadine Bell 

As they walk into the assessment room, the dreaded three words a health practitioner hears from a patient …I Googled it. Those three words are usually followed by a critical life or death self-diagnosis, profound anxiety, and then an abundance of questions trying to clarify and make sense of what they read or the gory image they analyzed.

21^st century patients live in a technology and media-driven environment where an abundance of health information is a simple Google search away. Although there is a list of advantages electronic health (eHealth) information provides, the associated eHealth literacy is commonly forgotten.

The concept of eHealth literacy is defined as the ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to addressing and solving a health problem (Normal & Skinner, 2006). It is an essential skill in order for individuals to have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information from technology sources such as the web, mobile health apps and health portals, in order to make appropriate health decisions (Kayser et al., 2018). 

 (Normal & Skinner, 2006)

The development of EHealth technology has surpassed the eHealth literacy skills one needs to use the technology appropriately. It is time for eHealth literacy to catch up, so patients are not at risk of ill-advised self-diagnosis and treatment that ends in an even larger strain on the healthcare system.  

EHealth literacy is comprised of six core skills. One can think of it as a lily flower, the six petals (core skills) feed the pistil (eHealth literacy), yet the pistil overlaps the petals, tying them all together (Normal & SKinner, 2006).

As organizations continue to develop and promote the use of eHealth resources we must equip patients with the eHealth literacy skills essential to use these tools appropriately. Educators and health care professionals need to equip patients with the six literacy skills needed to be eHealth literate and be aware of patient’s literacy skills before promotion of eHealth resources!

References

Kayser, L., Karnoe, A., Furstrand, D., Batterham, R., Christensen, K. B., Elsworth, G., & Osbrone, R. H. (2018). A multidimensional tool based on the eHealth literacy framework: Development and initial validity testing of the eHealth literacy questionnaire (eHLQ). Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(2), e36. doi:10.2196’jmir.8371

Normal, C.D., & Skinner, H.A. (2006). eHealth literacy: Essential skills for consumer health in a networked world. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(2), e9. doi:10.2196/jmir.8.2.e9