Digital Health Literacy and Its Associated Factors in General Population in Indonesia

Digital health literacy is expected to help individuals deal with information necessary during the pandemic. This research aimed to assess digital health literacy and identify its associated factors among the general population in Indonesia. A cross-sectional online survey was used to elicit responses from the general population (aged ≥18 years) in Indonesia from 31 March 2022 to 7 April 2022. Along with sociodemographic characteristics, the 8-subscales scores on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) from the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) were employed to assess Digital Health Literacy (DHL) scores. Linear regression was used to test the correlation between factors. A total of 460 respondents participated in the research. The findings show that most respondents know how to find helpful health resources on the Internet (4.13±0.56), how to use the Internet to answer health questions (3.75±0.87), what kinds of health resources are available on the Internet (3.78±0.86), and how to use the health information on the Internet to help themselves (3.67±0.78). Digital literacy is significantly associated with age, education, occupation, family income, experience of having a chronic disease, use of prescribed medicine, and intensity of internet use (p=<0.05). The finding indicates that DHL in the general population in Indonesia is still limited in technical ability. Improving respondents’ educational status through computer training, smartphone access, and perceived usefulness is necessary to improve digital health literacy skills in evaluating the quality of information. © 2024 by Indonesian Journal of Pharmacy (IJP).