Correlation between E-Health Literacy and Health Promoting Behaviors in elderly people

Health promoting behaviors (HPB) are considered as the most basic health criteria for the elderly. This study aimed to identify the correlation between e-health literacy (EHL) and health-promoting behaviors among the elderly referred to the Tehran retirement center in 2018. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 300 subjects aged 60 years and older referred to Tehran retirement center. Convenient sampling was used for selecting the subjects. The data were collected by 52-item health-promoting questionnaire (HPLP-II) and 8-item E-health literacy questionnaire (E-heals). In order to survey the difference of categorical demographic variables, independent T test and ANOVA method were used for variables with two-and more than two categories, respectively.  We also computed Pearson correlation coefficient between continues variables such as continuous demographic variables, HPB components and EHL. The data were analyzed through SPSS version 19. The significance level was considered less than or equal to 0.05. The mean and standard deviation of HPB and EHL were 146.95±30.31 and 27.19±6.99. The subjects with higher literacy obtained higher scores in HPB and consequently in its component. Pearson correlation coefficient between HPB and EHL was positive and significant (r=0.4, P<0.001). Also, correlation between EHL and   health responsibility (r=0.408, P<0.001), nutrition (r=0.329, P<0.001) and interpersonal relationships (r=0.413, P<0.001) was positive and significant. E-health literacy has a moderate positive correlation with health-promoting behaviors and its components among the elderly. Therefore, improving e-health literacy should be considered as a necessary subject for promoting the health behaviors of the elderly.