Relationship between eHealth literacy and psychological status during COVID-19 pandemic: A survey of Chinese residents

Aims: To investigate the eHealth literacy and the psychological status of Chinese residents during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore their interrelationship.

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak has placed intense psychological pressure on community residents. Their psychological status may be affected by eHealth literacy due to home isolation during this rampant pandemic.

Methods: This is a Web-based cross-sectional survey conducted on the JD Health platform, which resulted in 15,000 respondents having participated in this survey. The eHealth Literacy Questionnaire (EHLQ), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) were used. The Pearson correlation was used to analyse the relationship between eHealth literacy and depression, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Results: The score of eHealth literacy was 48.88 ± 8.46, and 11.4%, 6.8% and 20.1% of respondents experienced moderate to severe depression, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder. eHealth literacy negatively correlated with depression (r = -0.331), insomnia (r = -0.366) and post-traumatic stress disorder (r = -0.320).

Conclusion: eHealth literacy is closely related to psychological status. Improving eHealth literacy may contribute to maintaining good psychological well-being.

Implications for nursing management: It is necessary to strengthen the education of primary health care providers to enhance their ability to help community residents effectively use eHealth information.