Association of digital health literacy and information-seeking behaviors among physicians during COVID-19 in Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Bayou Tilahun Assaye; Mitiku Kassa; Muluken Belachew; Sefefe Birhanu; Aynadis Worku

doi:10.1177/20552076231180436

Association of digital health literacy and information-seeking behaviors among physicians during COVID-19 in Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Digit Health. 2023 Jun 4:9:20552076231180436. doi: 10.1177/20552076231180436. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Bayou Tilahun Assaye¹, Mitiku Kassa¹, Muluken Belachew¹, Sefefe Birhanu¹, Aynadis Worku¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Health informatics, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: Universal access to health information is a requirement for all global health strategies in the era of pandemics. Getting health information from the internet is a great concern for the quality of patient healthcare. This study aimed to determine the association between digital health literacy and information-seeking behavior among physicians during COVID-19.

Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted from December to February 2021 with a total sample size of 423. A pretest was performed among physicians before the actual data collection. After the data collection, the data were checked, cleaned, and exported into STATA v. 14. Descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression, and multivariable logistic regression analysis were applied. Then a 95% CI and a p-value of less than 0.05 were used to declare statistical significance.

Results: The study revealed that 53.81% of physicians had high digital health literacy and 52.46% had high information-seeking behaviors. Health information-seeking behaviors were determined by digital health literacy, which was 2.25 times more likely than those who had low digital health literacy (AOR = 2.25, 95% CI: [1.11-4.57]). Health-related websites (67.5%) were the most common sources of health information, and 63.30% of physicians find digital health literacy easy or very easy to learn. However, 206 (50.92%) find it difficult or very difficult to decide if the information is reliable, verified, and up-to-date. Internet access (AOR = 1.90, 95% CI: [1.16-3.12]), frequency of searching for information (AOR = 5.35, 95% CI: [2.01-14.29]). All were discovered to be significantly associated with physicians' health information-seeking behaviors.

Conclusions: Digital health literacy is a key to seeking health information online for appropriate decision-making. Increasing internet access, and providing ICT training, and integrate it into the health information revolution agendas, helping to disseminate health information and provide timely, reliable, and relevant news and genuine information needed for their work.

Keywords: COVID-19; Digital health literacy; Ethiopia; information-seeking behaviors; physicians.