Factors associated with eHealth literacy among people with systemic sclerosis: A Scleroderma Patient-centred Intervention Network (SPIN) Cohort cross-sectional study.

Abstract

Introduction/objective: eHealth literacy reflects the ability to obtain, understand, and evaluate health information from electronic sources and apply this information to health problems. Our objective was to evaluate sociodemographic (age, sex, race or ethnicity, education, marital status, country, residence location) and disease factors (duration, subtype) associations with eHealth literacy among individuals with systemic sclerosis (SSc).

Methods: Scleroderma Patient-centred Intervention Network (SPIN) Cohort participants completed the 8-item eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) from January 17 to February 18, 2025. Multivariable linear regression was used to assess associations of sociodemographic and disease characteristics with eHealth literacy.

Results: The 333 participants were from France (N = 116, 35%), Canada (N = 90, 27%), the United States (N = 85, 26%), the United Kingdom (N = 32, 10%), and Australia, Mexico, or Spain (N = 10, 3%). Most participants were female (N = 295, 89%), White (N = 268, 80%), and had limited SSc (N = 206, 62%). Compared to the United States, participants from Canada (-2.2 points, 95% CI -4.2 to -0.1; standardized mean difference (SMD) = -0.33) and France (-4.2 points, 95% CI -6.2 to -2.3; SMD = -0.64) had significantly lower eHEALS scores. Age, sex, race or ethnicity, marital status, education level, time since first non-Raynaud's symptom onset, and disease subtype were not associated with eHEALS scores.

Conclusion: eHealth literacy in SSc was not associated with age and education level as in some other studies but was associated with country. Future research should examine country-level differences in eHealth literacy for individuals with SSc.