Status and factors affecting e-health literacy among users of smart devices: a community based cross sectional study.

Background- e-health literacy can be a powerful tool to engage communities in their own health care management Materials and method- Sample size was calculated to be 384 rounded to 400 using Cochran’s formula. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the participants.eHEALS tool was used to measure electronic health literacyFrequencies, proportions, chi squared values as measures of association and Phi(Ф) and Cramer’s V for strength of association were calculated. Results- There were 118 (29.5%) males and 282 (70.5%%) females with a mean age of 45.1 (11.8) years.Median eHEALS score was 19 with IQR (13.5- 21.7). Age ( = 38.95, df=1, p=<.001), education ( = 15.51, df=4, p=.003), presence of comorbid condition ( = 13.01, df=1, p=.003), practice of self-medication ( = 10.76, df=2, p=.004) and trust on online information ( = 9.9, df=2, p=.007) emerged as factors significantly associated with adequate e-health literacy. Conclusion-Digitally literate communities can participate more fullyin taking care of their own health..