Population-Based Study Examining the eHealth Literacy of the Populations in Flensburg and Tallinn

Abstract

The target groups are the populations in Flensburg and Tallinn, aged 18+ years. The selection of participants will be performed randomly. The total number will be 1 000 completed interviews.

1. Introduction

The eHealth master course at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences and students of Tallinn University of Technology are planning a joint student project, designed as a population-based study, to examine the level of eHealth literacy in the two cities.

The eHealth literacy of German and Estonian populations has not been evaluated before. The study is a starting point to collect data and analyse the situation in Flensburg and Tallinn. The outcome of the study will be published and might serve as a basis for further research.

The questionnaire will be based on an already tested and often used measurement instrument. Additionally, the use of parts of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument is pioneer work, since this measurement scale was only published in January 2017. It is not tested and validated by any additional study yet.

2. Study Design

The survey will be performed using computer-based telephone interviews. The answers will be documented with the use of software.

The questionnaire will be designed by the students themselves. It will be based on eHEALS by Normand and Skinner [ 1 ] and the newly published Digital Health Literacy Instrument, developed by van der Vaart and Drossaert [ 2 ].

The questionnaire and the menu navigation of the software will be tested in a pretest with selected participants, totalling 30

References

References

1 Norman, C.D., and H.A. Skinner , eHEALS: The eHealth Literacy Scale . Journal of Medical Internet Research , 2006 . 8 : e27 .

2 Van der Vaart , R., and C. Drossaert , ( 2017 ) : Development of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument: measuring a broad spectrum of health 1.0 and health 2.0 skills . Journal of Medical Internet , 2017 . 19 ( 1 ): e27 .