Page 29 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

HeALtH LiteRACY, eHeALtH, AnD CoMMUniCAtion

individuals with a chronic condition have searched online for informa-
tion and those with chronic conditions were more likely than others to
report that the results of an online search influenced their health and care
behavior related to their condition (Fox, 2007). Yet those with low health
8
literacy have difficulty following simple self-care directions or prescrip-
tion instructions. They fear taking medications without assistance and are
unfamiliar with or lack understanding of basic health care terms.
As can be seen from this discussion, a number of skills are necessary
to successfully navigate the eHealth arena. Identifying these skills and
understanding the extent to which individuals possess these skills should
help in the design of better eHealth tools and systems. The eHealth liter-
acy scale (eHEALS) (Norman and Skinner, 2006a) was developed in order
to provide a concise measure of a patient’s self-perceived skill and com-
fort in using information technology for health. It contains 10 questions,
graded on a 5-point Likert scale with the questions designed to measure
knowledge of existing eHealth resources, how to find resources, how
to evaluate resources, how to use resources, and how to apply eHealth
resources to health problems. eHEALS has been tested in both interven-
tion trials and population health surveys with multicultural samples. It
has shown excellent internal consistency (scale alpha = .89-.97) and has
good test-retest reliability. The scale is publicly available (http://www.
jmir.org/2006/4/e27), has been translated into multiple languages, and
is currently in use in 10 countries.
eHealth literacy is growing in importance. Consumer-directed elec-
tronic tools are transforming the way that consumers receive information—
10
9
for good and for bad. Blogs, wikis, and a number of what are called Web
2.0 technologies allow people with little skill in programming to post
11
information on line. This in turn means that the amount of information,
including health information, found on the Internet is coming at a faster
rate and from more diverse sources than ever. Unfortunately, there is no
overall mechanism for monitoring and assessing the reliability of that

8 It is estimated that 90 million Americans have low health literacy, that is, trouble under-
standing and acting on health information (IOM, 2004).
9 “A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse
chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such
as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries” (Sussex
Learning Network, 2006).
10 A wiki “is a website that allows multiple users to create, modify and organize web page
content in a collaborative manner” (Governors State University, 2008).
11 Web 2.0 is “a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide
Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applica-
tions to end users. It refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services—such
as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize
online collaboration and sharing among users” (2020 Systems).

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