The Relationship Between Nurses' Digital Health Literacy and Their Educational Levels, Professional Roles, and Digital Attitudes: A Cluster Analysis Based on a Cross-Sectional Study

Dania Comparcini; Valentina Simonetti; Marco Tomietto; Francesco Pastore; Melania Totaro; Patrizia Ballerini; Paolo Trerotoli; Kristina Mikkonen; Giancarlo Cicolini

doi:10.1111/jocn.17484

The Relationship Between Nurses' Digital Health Literacy and Their Educational Levels, Professional Roles, and Digital Attitudes: A Cluster Analysis Based on a Cross-Sectional Study

J Clin Nurs. 2024 Oct 9. doi: 10.1111/jocn.17484. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, "Aldo Moro" University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
² Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry "G. d'Annunzio", University of Chieti, Pescara, Italy.
³ Department of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
⁴ Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, TorVergata University, Rome, Italy.
⁵ Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
⁶ Research Unit of Health Science and Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
⁷ Medical Research Center Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.

PMID: 39381920
DOI: 10.1111/jocn.17484

Abstract

Aim: The current study aimed to identify digital health literacy levels among nurses with respect to their education, role and attitude towards digital technologies.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Methods: Through convenience sampling, all Registered Nurses, managers/leaders and nurse researchers employed in Hospitals, University Hospitals and Districts were recruited and surveyed using an online questionnaire. The data collection tool assessed: (I) demographics, (II) Digital Health Literacy (DHL) with the Health Literacy Survey19 Digital (HLS19-DIGI) instrument including DHL dealing with digital health information (HL-DIGI), interaction with digital resources for health (HL-DIGI-INT) and use of digital devices for health (HL-DIGI-DD); (III) attitudes on the use of digital technologies in clinical practice. The multiple correspondence analysis was applied to identify three clusters for the education/professional role (A, B, C) and three for digital technologies' use (1, 2, 3). The one-way nonparametric analysis of variance (Kruskal-Wallis test) was applied to compare HL-DIGI, HL-DIGI-INT and the HL-DIGI-DD scores among clusters.

Results: Among 551 participants, the median scores of the HL-DIGI, the HL-DIGI-INT and the HL-DIGI-DD questionnaires were 70.2, 72 and 2.00, respectively. The distribution in the clusters 'educational/professional role' was A, (58.8%); B, (16.5%); and C, (24.7%). Nurses in a managerial or coordinator role and with a postgraduate degree used digital resources with greater frequency. The distribution in the clusters 'use of digital technologies' was: 1, (54.6%); 2, (12.2%); and 3, (33.2%). The HL-DIGI-DD and HL-DIGI scores of clusters 1, 2 and 3 differed significantly.

Conclusion: DHL among nurses is strongly influenced by the education level, professional role, habits and attitude towards digital technologies. Nurses with coordinator roles used digital technologies with greater frequency and had a higher level of DHL.

Reporting method: The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines were used for reporting.

Patient or public contribution: No Patient or Public Contribution.

Trial registration: Local Ethical Committee of the Polyclinic of Bari (code: DHL7454, date: 21/09/22).

Keywords: digital health literacy; digital technology; education; health literacy; nurses; nursing.