Digital Health Literacy in Patients With Hypertension: A Cross-Sectional Study

To assess Digital Health Literacy (DHL) levels among hypertensive patients.

Cross-sectional study.

The study, conducted from March to August 2024 among hypertensive patients using convenience sampling, employed a 35-item questionnaire assessing: (I) sociodemographic; (II) physical activity, dietary habits, antihypertensive pharmacological treatment and medical history; (III) online health-related information knowledge and confidence; (IV) DHL, through the HLS₁₉-DIGI questionnaire with subscales on: (i) dealing with digital health information (HL-DIGI), (ii) interaction with digital resources (HL-DIGI-INT), (iii) frequency of digital device use for health (HL-DIGI-DD).

Among 311 participants (mean age 63.9 years, SD = 14.8), 42.1% completed high school, 25.4% held a bachelor's degree and 22.8% were physically inactive. While 49.8% were aware of online health-related information, 28.9% were uncertain and 47.6% lacked confidence in using it for health decisions. On average, participants showed a problematic level of DHL in HL-DIGI, a sufficient level in HL-DIGI-INT, and used digital health devices just over once a week. Older age emerged as a predictor of higher online health-related knowledge and DHL, while higher education level predicted higher knowledge, confidence and DHL. Physical inactivity was associated with lower online health-related information knowledge and confidence.

These findings point to the need to design proactive strategies and implement targeted training and educational interventions to improve DHL in hypertensive patients.

Enhancing DHL levels through targeted interventions in patient care allows patients to effectively benefit from digital healthcare, achieve positive health outcomes and reduce disparities in care pathways.

This study adhered to the STROBE checklist for reporting.

Patients were involved as the study population.

Local Ethical Committee of the University Hospital Company of the Marche Region, Italy (protocol: 2023/279, date: 28/09/2023).