eHealth Literacy of Australian Undergraduate Health Profession Students: A Descriptive Study

Carey Ann Mather (), Christina Cheng, Tracy Douglas, Gerald Elsworth and Richard Osborne
Additional contact information
Carey Ann Mather: Institute of Health Service Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Launceston 7250, Australia
Christina Cheng: Centre for Global Health and Equity, School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn 3122, Australia
Tracy Douglas: School of Health Sciences, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston 7250, Australia
Gerald Elsworth: Centre for Global Health and Equity, School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn 3122, Australia
Richard Osborne: Centre for Global Health and Equity, School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn 3122, Australia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-21

Abstract: Rapid growth in digital health technologies has increased demand for eHealth literacy of all stakeholders within health and social care environments. The digital future of health care services requires the next generation of health professionals to be well-prepared to confidently provide high-quality and safe health care. The aim of this study was to explore the eHealth literacy of undergraduate health profession students to inform undergraduate curriculum development to promote work-readiness. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken at an Australian university using the seven-domain eHealth Literacy Questionnaire (eHLQ), with 610 students participating. A one-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) with follow-up univariate analysis (ANOVA) was used to determine if there were differences in eHLQ scores across 11 sociodemographic variables. Students generally had good knowledge of health (Scale 2); however, they had concerns over the security of online health data (Scale 4). There were also significant differences in age and ownership of digital devices. Students who were younger reported higher scores across all seven eHLQ scales than older students. This research provided an understanding of eHealth literacy of health profession students and revealed sub-groups that have lower eHealth literacy, suggesting that digital health skills should be integrated into university curriculums, especially related to practice-based digital applications with special focus to address privacy and security concerns. Preparation of health profession students so they can efficiently address their own needs, and the needs of others, is recommended to minimise the digital divide within health and social care environments.

Keywords: curriculum; digital; eHealth; eHLQ; health literacy; health profession; student (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10751/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10751/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10751-:d:900706

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().