Longitudinal Relationship of eHealth Literacy With Self-Management Via Self-efficacy in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes: Autoregressive Cross-Lagged Modeling.
Eun-Hyun Lee, Kwan-Woo Lee, Hae Jin Kim and 2 others
PMID 42127338WHAT IT FOUND
Higher eHealth literacy was not directly associated with better diabetes self-management over the three time points.
It was associated through patients' confidence in managing diabetes, so confidence may be the link rather than online information skills alone.
Key findings
01Higher eHealth literacy at the first time point did not directly predict better diabetes self-management at the third time point.
02The significant indirect path from eHealth literacy at the first time point to self-management at the third time point ran through self-efficacy at the second time point (bootstrap estimate 0.010; 95% confidence interval .001 to .028).
03Each variable predicted its own next measurement, and all cross-lagged paths were statistically significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was an observational survey of patients, not a test of an intervention, so it cannot show that improving online health literacy will improve diabetes self-management. The direct link from online health literacy to later self-management was not significant, and the significant indirect link was small. Participants came from one university hospital in a country with high internet and smartphone penetration, so findings may not apply to patients with less digital access. The follow-up was only three time points 3 months apart, so the study could not show how long the mediation lasted. All key variables were self-reported, and 331 of 390 recruited were analysed after dropouts and removal of 15 outlier records.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that teaching patients to use online health information will improve their diabetes self-management. The study was observational, no intervention was tested, and the direct link to self-management was not significant.