eHealth literacy of late adolescents: Credibility and quality of health information through smartphones in India // Alfabetización en e-Salud de los jóvenes: Credibilidad y calidad de la información sanitaria con móviles en la India

Masilamani, Vaageessan, Sriram, Arulchelvan and Rozario, Ann-Maria eHealth literacy of late adolescents: Credibility and quality of health information through smartphones in India // Alfabetización en e-Salud de los jóvenes: Credibilidad y calidad de la información sanitaria con móviles en la India. Comunicar, 2020, vol. 28, n. 64, pp. 85-95. [Journal article (Paginated)]

[thumbnail of Research article (English)]
Preview
Text (Research article (English))
c6408en.pdf - Published version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike.

Download (805kB) | Preview
[thumbnail of Research article (Español)]
Preview
Text (Research article (Español))
c6408es.pdf - Published version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike.

Download (981kB) | Preview

English abstract

The introduction of smartphones has revolutionized how late adolescents (aged 18-21 years) access and use the internet. Vast troves of health information are today just a tap or swipe away, with smartphones and internet connectivity becoming increasingly accessible. The need for eHealth literacy among late adolescents is now gaining importance as it ensures an effective use of health information. This study conducted a survey among 427 late adolescents in order to evaluate their eHealth literacy levels; their perceptions of the quality of online health information; their level of trust and credibility in online health and checked if acquiring health information through the online medium led to a change in their behavior intention. The results showed that most of the late adolescents preferred viewing multiple websites for their health information needs. Health information in the form of text and images were preferred over video content; and most preferred accessing online health information in their native language. Cancer and obesity are the common health issues of interest to both genders. Mobile applications (apps) were the least preferred mode of accessing heath information despite the high usage of smartphones. eHealth literacy and credibility positively predicted behavior intention while quality of health information did not predict behavior intention.

Spanish abstract

La introducción de los smartphones (teléfonos inteligentes) ha revolucionado la forma en que los adolescentes tardíos (de entre 18 y 21 años) acceden y usan Internet. Hay una gran cantidad de información a solo un toque de distancia y los teléfonos móviles y la conectividad a Internet son cada vez más accesibles. La necesidad de aprender acerca de eSalud entre los adolescentes tardíos ahora está cobrando importancia, ya que garantiza un uso eficaz de la información de la salud. En este estudio se realiza una encuesta a 427 adolescentes tardíos para evaluar sus conocimientos en eSalud; sus percepciones de la calidad de la información de la eSalud; su nivel de confianza y credibilidad en eSalud y verificar si la adquisición de información de salud a través de este medio conduce a un cambio en su intención de comportamiento. Los resultados mostraron que la mayoría de los adolescentes tardíos preferían ver múltiples páginas web para sus necesidades de información de salud y la mayoría preferían acceder a información de eSalud en su idioma nativo. Las aplicaciones móviles (apps) eran el método menos usado para acceder a la información de salud a pesar del alto uso de smartphones. La alfabetización y la credibilidad de eSalud predijeron positivamente la intención de comportamiento, mientras que la calidad de la información de salud no predice la intención de comportamiento.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: Health Information; eHealth Literacy; mobile health; adolescents; mHealth; credibility; quality; online health information; Información de salud; alfabetización de eSalud; mSalud; adolescentes; salud móvil; credibilidad; calidad; información de la salud en línea.
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information
B. Information use and sociology of information > BH. Information needs and information requirements analysis.
C. Users, literacy and reading. > CC. User categories: children, young people, social groups.
G. Industry, profession and education. > GZ. None of these, but in this section.
H. Information sources, supports, channels. > HQ. Web pages.
K. Housing technologies.
L. Information technology and library technology > LT. Mobile devices
Depositing user: Alex Ruiz
Date deposited: 05 Jul 2020 09:05
Last modified: 05 Jul 2020 09:05
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/40066

References

Aaby, A., Friis, K., Christensen, B., Rowlands, G., & Maindal, H.T. (2017). Health literacy is associated with health behaviour and self-reported health: A large population-based study in individuals with cardiovascular disease. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 24(17), 1880-1888. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487317729538

Abroms, L., Padmanabhan, P., & Evans, W. (2012). Mobile phones for health communication to promote behavior change. eHealth Applications, 147-166. http://bit.ly/2TZcZ8p

Ahirwar, R., & Mondal, P.R. (2019). Prevalence of obesity in India: A systematic review. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews, 13(1), 318-321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2018.08.032

Boberg, E.W., Gustafson, D.H., Hawkins, R.P., Offord, K.P., Koch, C., Wen, K.Y., Kreutz, K., & Salner, A. (2003). Assessing the unmet information, support and care delivery needs of men with prostate cancer. Patient Education and Counseling, 49(3), 233-242. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0738-3991(02)00183-0

Borzekowski, D.L., Fobil, J. N., & Asante, K.O. (2006). Online access by adolescents in Accra: Ghanaian teens' use of the Internet for health information. Developmental psychology, 42(3), 450. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.42.3.450

Charnock, D., & Shepperd, S. (2004). Learning to DISCERN online: applying an appraisal tool to health websites in a workshop setting. Health Education Research, 19(4), 440-446. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg046

Cheng, C., & Dunn, M. (2017). How well are health information websites displayed on mobile phones? Implications for the readability of health information. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 28(1), 15-20. https://doi.org/10.1071/HE15127

Chung, S.Y., & Nahm, E.S. (2015). Testing reliability and validity of the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) for older adults recruited online. Computers, Informatics, Nursing: CIN, 33(4), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1097/CIN.0000000000000146

Deb, K.S., Tuli, A., Sood, M., Chadda, R., Verma, R., Kumar, S., Ganesh, R., & Singh, P. (2018). Is India ready for mental health apps (MHApps)? A quantitative-qualitative exploration of caregivers’ perspective on smartphone-based solutions for managing severe mental illnesses in low resource settings. PloS One, 13(9), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203353

Deng, Z., & Liu, S. (2017). Understanding consumer health information-seeking behavior from the perspective of the risk perception attitude framework and social support in mobile social media websites. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 105, 98-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.05.014

Deng, Z., Liu, S., & Hinz, O. (2015). The health information seeking and usage behavior intention of Chinese consumers through mobile phones. Information Technology & People, 28(2), 405-423. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-03-2014-0053

Diviani, N., Fredriksen, E.H., Meppelink, C.S., Mullan, J., Rich, W., & Sudmann, T.T. (2019). Where else would I look for it? A five-country qualitative study on purposes, strategies, and consequences of online health information seeking. Journal of Public Health Research, 8(1), 33-39. https://doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2019.1518

Eysenbach, G. (2003). The impact of the Internet on cancer outcomes. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 53(6), 356-371. https://doi.org/10.3322/canjclin.53.6.356

Ghaddar, S.F., Valerio, M.A., Garcia, C.M., & Hansen, L. (2012). Adolescent health literacy: The importance of credible sources for online health information. Journal of School Health, 82(1), 28-36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00664.x

Gretter, S., & Yadav, A. (2016). Computational thinking and media & information literacy: An integrated approach to teaching twenty-first century skills. TechTrends, 60(5), 510-516. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-016-0098-4

Guntzviller, L.M., King, A.J., Jensen, J.D., & Davis, L.A. (2017). Self-efficacy, health literacy, and nutrition and exercise behaviors in a low-income, Hispanic population. Journal of Inmigrant and Minority Health, 19(2), 489-493.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0384-4

Hu, Y., & Sundar, S. (2010). Effects of online health sources on credibility and behavioral intentions. Communication Research, 37(1), 105-132. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650209351512

Kienhues, D., & Bromme, R. (2012). Exploring laypeople’s epistemic beliefs about medicine- a factor-analytic survey study. BMC Public Health, 12(759). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-759

Koo, M., Norman, C.D., & Hsiao-Mei, C. (2012). Psychometric evaluation of a Chinese version of the eHealth literacy scale (eHEALS) in school age children. Global Journal of Health Education and Promotion, 15(1). http://bit.ly/38QLmTe

Korhan, O., & Ersoy, M. (2016). Usability and functionality factors of the social network site application users from the perspective of uses and gratification theory. Quality & Quantity, 50(4), 1799-1816. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0236-7

Kwan, G., Shaw, J.A., & Murnane, L. (2019). Internet usage within healthcare: How college students use the Internet to obtain health information. Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, 23(4), 366-377. https://doi.org/10.1080/15398285.2019.1681247

Lam, M.K., & Lam, L.T. (2012). Health information-seeking behaviour on the Internet and health literacy among older Australians. Electronic Journal of Health Informatics, 15(2), 1-7. http://bit.ly/39ZLzVz

Lee, S.Y., & Hawkins, R. (2010). Why do patients seek an alternative channel? The effects of unmet needs on patients' health-related Internet use. Journal of Health Communication, 15(2), 152-166. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730903528033

Lemola, S., Perkinson-Gloor, N., Brand, S., Dewald-Kaufmann, J.F., & Grob, A. (2015). Adolescents’ electronic media use at night, sleep disturbance, and depressive symptoms in the smartphone age. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(2), 405-418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0176-x

Liang, H., Xue, Y., & Chase, S.K. (2011). Online health information seeking by people with physical disabilities due to neurological conditions. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 80(11), 745-753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2011.08.003

Madathil, K.C., Rivera-Rodriguez, A.J., Greenstein, J.S., & Gramopadhye, A.K. (2015). Healthcare information on YouTube: a systematic review. Health Informatics Journal, 21(3), 173-194. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458213512220

Mamman, M., Ogunbado, A.F., & Abu-Bakr, A.S. (2016). Factors influencing customer’s behavioral intention to adopt Islamic banking in northern Nigeria: Aproposed framework. IOSR Journal of Economics and Finance (IOSR-JEF), 7(1), 51-55. http://bit.ly/3bd5ssb

Mangan, D. (2015). Why Americans are putting off doctor visits: ZocDoc. https://cnb.cx/39fzZEH

Marshall, L.A., & Williams, D. (2006). Health information: does quality count for the consumer? How consumers evaluate the quality of health information materials across a variety of media. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 38(3), 141-156. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000606066575

Mathi, S. (2019). The Economics Behind India’s Super-Cheap ($0.26 Per GB) Mobile Data. http://bit.ly/394rCLO

Metzger, M.J. (2007). Making sense of credibility on the Web: Models for evaluating online information and recommendations for future research. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(13), 2078-2091. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20672

Mitchell, S.J., Godoy, L., Shabazz, K., & Horn, I.B. (2014). Internet and mobile technology use among urban African American parents: Survey study of a clinical population. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2673

MscN, M.Y. (2019). E-health literacy and individual innovation in university students enrolled in health-related departments. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 12(3), 1744-1751. https://bit.ly/2WDP1Bj

Neter, E., & Brainin, E. (2012). eHealth literacy: extending the digital divide to the realm of health information. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 14(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1619

Norman, C.D., & Skinner, H.A. (2006). eHEALS: the eHealth literacy scale. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(4), 27. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8.4.e27

Pasupathi, M., Staudinger, U.M., & Baltes, P.B. (2001). Seeds of wisdom: Adolescents' knowledge and judgment about difficult life problems. Developmental Psychology, 37(3), 351-361. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.37.3.351

Peng, W., Kanthawala, S., Yuan, S., & Hussain, S.A. (2016). A qualitative study of user perceptions of mobile health apps. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 1158. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3808-0

Rajpal, S., Kumar, A., & Joe, W. (2018). Economic burden of cancer in India: Evidence from cross-sectional nationally representative household survey, 2014. PloS One, 13(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193320

So, I.T., Lee, Y.J., Jung, H.I., Hwang, J.S., & Jang, B.K. (2019). The quality of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease information resources for patients on the Internet in Korea. The KoreanJournal of Internal Medicine, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3904/kjim.2018.359

Spence, P.R., Lachlan, K.A., Westerman, D., & Spates, S.A. (2013). Where the gates matter less: Ethnicity and perceived source credibility in social media health messages. Howard Journal of Communications, 24(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2013.748593

Vargo, C., Cole, R., & Minooie, M. (2014). The emerging papyrus society. Digital communication in the time of disclosure. http://bit.ly/2WjjgNO

Walsh-Childers, K. (2016). Mass media and health: examining media impact on individuals and the health environment. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315683683

Wartella, E., Rideout, V., Montague, H., Beaudoin-Ryan, L., & Lauricella, A. (2016). Teens, health and technology: A national survey. Media and Communication, 4(3), 13-23. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v4i3.515

Yan, Y.Y. (2010). Online health information seeking behavior in Hong Kong: An exploratory study. Journal of Medical Systems, 34(2), 147-153. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-008-9226-9


Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item