Health Literacy and Online Health Information Processing: Unraveling the Underlying Mechanisms

Abstract

Health literacy and online health information processing: Unraveling the underlying mechanisms Meppelink, C.S.; Smit, E.G.; Diviani, N.; van Weert, J.C.M. General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. The usefulness of the Internet as a health information source largely depends on the receiver's health literacy. This study investigates the mechanisms through which health literacy affects information recall and website attitudes. Using 2 independent surveys addressing different Dutch health websites (N = 423 and N = 395), we tested the mediating role of cognitive load, imagination ease, and website involvement. The results showed that the influence of health literacy on information recall and website attitudes was mediated by cognitive load and imagination ease but only marginally by website involvement. Thus, to improve recall and attitudes among people with lower health literacy, online health communication should consist of information that is not cognitively demanding and that is easy to imagine.The Internet is a powerful source of information that makes an unlimited amount of information available to everyone. In the United States 84% of adults use the Internet (Perrin & Duggan, 2015), and in The Netherlands 97% of the adult population has Internet access (Statistics Netherlands, 2014). Moreover, more than two thirds of the U.S. adult population currently owns a smartphone (Smith, 2015). Because nearly anything can be found online, this suggests that access to information no longer divides groups in society. Smartphones in particular are expected to decrease the digital divide created by the Internet, as they offer opportunities to reach population groups that were difficult to reach before (Fiordelli, Diviani, & Schulz, 2013). Equal physical access to the Internet, however, does not necessarily correspond to an equal ability to understand and use online information. For some population groups, finding, evaluating, and understanding information is more difficult than it is for others.Information is a valuable asset in many domains, including health. The extent to which people are able to benefit from online information largely depends on their level of health literacy, defined as the "ability to obtain, process, understand, and communicate about health-rel...

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