ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1477314
This article is part of the Research TopicHealth Literacy and Digital Health Literacy among Older Adults: Public Health InterventionsView all 18 articles
A Latent Profile Analysis of Digital Health Literacy in Elderly Patients with Chronic Diseases in China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, China
- 2Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, Anhui Province, China
- 3University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
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AbstractObjective： This study aims to explore the heterogeneity of digital health literacy profiles among elderly patients with chronic diseases, analyze the influencing factors using the social-ecological system theory, and provide targeted recommendations to improve this population's digital health literacy and self-management capabilities.Methods: Convenience sampling was used to select 536 elderly patients with chronic diseases from three tertiary hospitals in Anhui Province between October 2023 and May 2024. The survey used the General Information Questionnaire, Digital Health Literacy Scale, Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, Chronic Disease Management Self-Efficacy Scale, and Social Support Scale. Latent profile analysis examined the heterogeneity and determined the latent categories of digital health literacy. Multinomial logistic regression analysis explored the influencing factors.Results: Three latent categories of digital health literacy were identified: low digital health literacy-interaction obstacle type (65.3%), moderate digital health literacy-general interaction type (26.7%), and high digital health literacy-good interaction type (9%). The multinomial logistic regression results showed that age, education level, participation in chronic disease health education lectures, number of digital devices used, average daily internet use, perception of digital health information (ease of use, usefulness, and risk), social support, and chronic disease management self-efficacy significantly influenced the categories of digital health literacy (all p<0.05).Conclusion: There is significant heterogeneity in digital health literacy among elderly patients with chronic diseases. Healthcare professionals can identify key intervention groups based on the characteristics of different categories and develop effective intervention programs targeting these factors to improve digital health literacy.Keywords: Elderly, chronic diseases, digital health literacy, influencing factors, latent profile analysis
Keywords: Elderly, chronic diseases, didigital health literacy, Influencing factors, Latent profile analysis (LPA)
Received: 07 Aug 2024; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shao, Duan, Zhang, Zhao, Xu, Xu and Xiumu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yang Xiumu, Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, China
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