eHealth literacy and its associated factors in Ethiopia: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Introduction Electronic health has the potential benefit to the health system by improving health service quality efficiency effectiveness and reducing the cost of care. Having good e-health literacy level is considered essential for improving healthcare delivery and quality of care as well as empowers caregivers and patients to influence control care decisions. Many studies have done on eHealth literacy and its determinants among adults, however, inconsistent findings from those studies were found. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the pooled magnitude of eHealth literacy and to identify associated factors among adults in Ethiopia through systematic review and meta-analysis. Method Search of PubMed, Scopus, and web of science, and Google Scholar was conducted to find out relevant articles published from January 2028 to 2022. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale tool was used to assess the quality of included studies. Two reviewers extracted the data independently by using standard extraction formats and exported in to Stata version11 for meta-analysis. The degree of heterogeneity between studies was measured using I2 statistics. The publication bias between studies also checked by using egger test. The pooled magnitude of eHealth literacy was performed using fixed effect model. Result After go through 138 studies, five studies with total participants of 1758 were included in this systematic review and Meta-analysis. The pooled estimate of eHealth literacy in Ethiopia was found 59.39% (95%CI: 47.10–71.68). Perceived usefulness (AOR = 2.46; 95% CI: 1.36, 3.12),educational status(AOR = 2.28; 95% CI: 1.11, 4.68), internet access (AOR = 2.35; 95% CI: 1.67, 3.30), knowledge on electronic health information sources(AOR = 2.60; 95% CI: 1.78, 3.78), electronic health information sources utilization (AOR = 2.55; 95%CI: 1.85, 3.52), gender (AOR = 1.82; 95% CI: 1.38, 2.41) were identified significant predictors of e-health literacy. Conclusion and recommendation This systematic review and meta-analysis found that more than half of study participants were eHealth literate. This finding recommends that creating awareness about importance of eHealth usefulness and capacity building to enhance and encouraging to use electronic sources and availability of internet has para amount to solution to increase eHealth literacy level of study participants.

Digital health competencies and affecting factors among healthcare professionals: additional findings from a systematic review

“…Hennemann et al, 2017; Thapa et al, 2021). Similarly, most recent studies have confirmed that performance expectancy might increase the intention to use an app among physicians (Breil et al, 2022), and perceived usefulness affect positively the e-health literacy (Wubante et al, 2023), suggesting; therefore, the relevance of these factors that should be promoted during undergraduate education.…”

“…Discrepancies between high-income and low-income countries are also confirmed in the use of digital technologies for specific functions, with a poor level in several aspects in Ethiopia (Shiferaw and Mehari, 2019; Tesfa et al, 2021) and in electronic prescribing and communication in the USA and Switzerland (Duffy et al, 2016; Gaumer et al, 2007; Kocher et al, 2021). However, a recent meta-analysis suggests that more than half of a sample of 1758 adults in Ethiopia is e-health literate (Wubante et al, 2023). Therefore, further investigation is needed to explore the level of digital health literacy among HCPs in low-income countries.…”

eHealth literacy among hospital health care providers: a systematic review

“…Furthermore, as World Health Organization stated that eHealth has been implemented in the absence of a careful examination of the evidence base [ 48 , 49 ], inadequate knowledge of health care providers’ eHealth literacy may be one of the reasons why Western countries have faced barriers in the implementation processes. Thus, knowledge of health care providers’ eHealth literacy seems highly relevant for countries with lower economic performance, such as Iran and Ethiopia, when developing eHealth programmes to improve the delivery of health care services [ 50 ]. However, this knowledge cannot be generalised to Western countries, where eHealth infrastructure exists to very different extent compared to non-Western countries.…”

Incidence of Catheter-Associated Bloodstream Infections in Stem Cell Recipients—Should We Be “PICCy”?

“…Regardless of the catheter type, an indwelling vascular line increases the risk of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) [ 12 , 13 ]. The mortality rate associated with CLABSI varies from 12% to 40%, depending on factors such as patient comorbidities, catheter type, and the type of microorganism causing the infection [ 14 ].…”