Background: eHealth literacy is crucial for older adults to access and evaluate online health information. This empowers them to monitor and manage their own health in the post-COVID era.
Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the territory wide "Generations Connect" project, a community-based eHealth literacy intervention for underprivileged older adults in Hong Kong.
Methods: We conducted a pre-post study from June to August 2023 to evaluate the effectiveness of the GC Project. The project involved 71 trained medical and health students who delivered special designed interventions to 2,733 underprivileged older adults (aged 65-101, M = 77.5, SD = 7) at their homes. The intervention included a 1.5-hour face-to-face session teaching the elders to use two mHealth applications, along with scanning QR codes for health information. An additional two-week digital intervention via WhatsApp followed.
Results: Older adults with higher eHealth literacy were younger, well-educated, living in private houses, and had higher daily mobile phone usage. 2,139 older adults participated in the 15-day follow-up assessment. Their eHealth literacy increased significantly from pre-intervention (M = 16.95, SD = 9.97) to post-intervention (M = 18.64, SD = 10.07). Over one-third (37.9%) increased health-related video viewing on mobile phones after the intervention. 91.7% expressed satisfaction with the GC project.
Conclusion: The GC interventions effectively improved eHealth literacy among older adults. Additional tailor-made interventions will be provided randomly for those whose eHealth literacy did not improve. These findings have important implications for designing effective health literacy interventions for the older population.

Authors:
Wenshu Li, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Sophia Siu Chee Chan, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Kelvin Man Ping Wang, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Billy Tsz Yin Wong, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Li is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on the intersection of health, technology, and media, which includes health information behaviors, aging and caregiving, eHealth lit

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

Bookmark