A taxonomy characterizing complexity of consumer eHealth Literacy

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Informatics
• Patient Engagement

Background:

• eHealth interventions offer significant benefits for patient access to health information, self-management, and communication.
• Barriers exist that prevent patients from fully utilizing eHealth tools, particularly those with lower eHealth literacy.
• eHealth literacy encompasses a range of skills including reading, numeracy, health, computer, information, media, and scientific literacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a framework for characterizing the complexity of eHealth skills.
• To identify knowledge and skill-related barriers hindering patient engagement with eHealth.
• To create an eHealth literacy taxonomy based on Bloom's Taxonomy to categorize literacy skills by complexity.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Bloom's Taxonomy as a guiding framework.
• Developed a novel eHealth literacy taxonomy.
• Categorized and described various literacy types by their complexity levels.
• Used illustrative examples to demonstrate the taxonomy's application.

Main Results:

• The developed taxonomy effectively categorizes eHealth literacy skills based on complexity.
• The approach helps in identifying specific knowledge and skill deficits among users.
• Illustrative examples confirmed the taxonomy's utility in analyzing eHealth task completion.

Conclusions:

• A structured approach to understanding eHealth literacy complexity is crucial for intervention design.
• The eHealth literacy taxonomy can pinpoint barriers to effective patient engagement with digital health tools.
• Addressing identified skill gaps can enhance patient benefits from eHealth interventions.