eHealth technology use and eHealth literacy after percutaneous coronary intervention

Electronic health (eHealth) sources have great potential to improve patients’ access to health information for self-management of secondary prevention after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). It remains unclear, however, whether patients are health-related digitally active and whether they have sufficient eHealth literacy. This study aimed to determine the extent to which patients after PCI are health-related digitally active at baseline, 2 and 6 months after PCI, and to determine the association between patients’ eHealth literacy and their health-related digital activity.

This multicentre cohort study included patients at three large referral PCI centres in Norway (n = 1970). Data were collected from medical records, national registries, and patients’ self-reports. The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) assessed patients’ eHealth literacy. At baseline, 67% had used the internet to find health information. The mean eHEALS score was 25.71 (standard deviation 6.22), illustrating a lower level of eHealth literacy. There were substantial associations between eHealth literacy and use of the internet to find health information [coefficient 10.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 8.05–14.57]. At the 2-month follow-up, there were substantial associations between baseline eHealth literacy and use of the internet to find information about health, prevention, illness, or treatment [odds ratio (OR) 1.19, 95% CI 1.14–1.24] and use of health applications (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.08–1.22).

This study provides evidence that patients’ level of eHealth literacy after PCI is associated to how patients use, and can make use of, eHealth technology for health information.

ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03810612).