E-Health Literacy Status of Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis in Turkey

Abstract

Background: This research aims to compare e-health literacy of technology users and nonusers in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and to investigate whether there are correlations between age, duration of MS, gender, marital status, and e-health total scores.Methods: This descriptive study was carried out with a web-based questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to 300 patients with MS who were registered at Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty Neurology Department.Results: A total of 156 people (mean age: 35.33 +/- 10.47 years) participated in the survey. Smartphone 98.1% (n = 153) was the mostly used device. Rate of using Google and recommended websites about MS was 94.25% (n = 145) and 73.9% (n = 113), respectively. e-Health literacy of both the tablet and recommended websites users significantly differed from that of nonusers (p = 0.007 for both). Participants' e-health literacy total score was found to weakly, but significantly, correlate with their age, marital status, and education level (rho: -0.161, p = 0.044; rho: 0.172, p = 0.032; rho: -0.192, p = 0.016, respectively).Conclusions: With developments in digital technologies, it is important to identify the access status of people with MS to improve daily clinical management and implement further motor and cognitive rehabilitation. Therefore, determining the health literacy of individuals with MS and providing education on this subject will reduce the information pollution.