Assessing the Level of Digital Health Literacy in Health Care Professionals in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the digital health literacy of the healthcare workers in a tertiary care
hospital.
Material and Methods: The study was conducted in Mayo Hospital, Lahore for duration of six months. It
was a cross-sectional study. Healthcare practitioners, including medical doctors, nursing staff and other allied
health professionals were included in the study. Following the ethical approval & informed consent, data was
collected using a standardized pre-designed questionnaire the Digital health literacy instrument (DHLI).
Statistical analysis was done using the SPSS 26.
Results: A total of 285 healthcare workers participated in the study. 69.1% were doctors, 30.9% were nurses
and allied health professionals. Healthcare workers had desirable levels of skills in various domains of
Digital health literacy instrument (DHLI) including navigation skills, protecting privacy, operational skills,
information search and adding content. Scores were comparable between the physicians and the allied health
professionals.
Conclusions: With the changing global environment and wide availability of online healthcare related information
and applications, it is important to have the necessary skills to avail these opportunities. The results from our
study show the health care professionals have good literacy related to digital health resources. A desirable level
of DHL can help the health care workers to improve their patient care, communication skills and health literacy
of their patients.