Background

The internet has become an important source of health information among people across the globe. However, the novel coronavirus outbreak has led to a broader dissemination of fake and misleading health information. While health professionals may be able to critically evaluate internet-based information, the skills at finding, appraising, and using COVID-19-related online information may be problematic for laypeople in low-income countries. The purpose of this study was to examine the digital literacy of lay consumers of online COVID-19-related information in Ghana.

Method

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among online health consumers across five regions in Ghana. Participants were conveniently recruited through social media, and the survey was based on the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHeals) and administered through Qualtrics^xm software. We calculated the overall mean eHeals score to determine the literacy levels and performed descriptive statistics to describe the characteristics of the sample. Linear regression analysis was performed to determine the factors associated with respondents' digital literacy.

Result

Out of 700 respondents sent with a survey link, 325 responded (46.4 % response rate). The majority of the respondents were: younger than 31 years (M = 28.42, SD = 6.98), males (59.7 %), use the internet daily (94.4 %), engaged in social media activities (65 %), and frequently search the internet for information related to COVID-19. The overall eHealth literacy was quite high (M = 4.01, SD = 0.95), but respondents' scores on items 1 and 6 were relatively low. Sex, age, frequently searching the internet for COVID-19 information, using the internet for educational purposes, and having a little/adequate knowledge of COVID-19 was predictive of digital literacy.

Conclusion

The study revealed a high overall digital literacy as well as sex and age differences in literacy levels among online health consumers in Ghana. However, respondents’ ability to locate COVID-19 related informaion and their skills in differentiating scientific from unscientific internet-based information remain relatively low. These findings offer useful insight that can inform the design of inclusive internet-based preventive resources that would be accessible and understandable to laypeople across all age groups and sexes in low-income countries.

中文翻译：

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低收入国家在线健康消费者中与COVID-19信息相关的数字素养

背景

互联网已经成为全球人们健康信息的重要来源。但是，新的冠状病毒爆发导致更广泛地传播假冒和误导性的健康信息。尽管卫生专业人员可能能够批判性地评估基于Internet的信息，但对于低收入国家的外行而言，查找，评估和使用与COVID-19相关的在线信息的技能可能会出现问题。这项研究的目的是检查加纳在线COVID-19相关信息的非专业消费者的数字素养。

方法

在加纳五个地区的在线医疗消费者中进行了横断面调查。通过社交媒体方便地招募了参与者，该调查基于eHealth扫盲量表（eHeals）并通过Qualtrics ^xm软件进行管理。我们计算了总体平均eHeals得分来确定识字水平，并进行了描述性统计来描述样本的特征。进行线性回归分析以确定与受访者的数字素养相关的因素。

结果

在通过调查链接发送的700位受访者中，有325位做出了回应（回复率为46.4％）。大部分受访者为：年龄小于31岁（M = 28.42，SD = 6.98），男性（59.7％），每天使用互联网（94.4％），从事社交媒体活动（65％）以及经常搜索互联网以获取与COVID-19相关的信息。电子卫生保健的整体素养很高（M = 4.01，SD = 0.95），但受访者在第1项和第6项上的得分相对较低。性别，年龄，经常在互联网上搜索COVID-19信息，将互联网用于教育目的以及对COVID-19的了解很少/足够了解数字素养。

结论

该研究表明，加纳的在线医疗消费者总体数字素养较高，识字水平存在性别和年龄差异。但是，受访者找到与COVID-19相关的信息的能力以及他们区分科学与不科学的基于互联网的信息的技能仍然相对较低。这些发现提供了有用的见解，可为低收入国家所有年龄段和性别的外行人提供易于理解的基于互联网的包容性预防资源的设计。