The Relationship Between e‐Health Literacy and Quality of Bowel Preparation and Predictors in Patients Undergoing Colonoscopy

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world and Türkiye. Electronic health literacy is essential in preventing diseases such as cancer, delayed diagnoses, and barriers with accessing healthcare services. In colonoscopy preparation, which is the gold standard in colorectal cancer screening, e-health literacy may be important in terms of facilitating the colonoscopy preparation process. This descriptive and correlational research is an exploratory study aimed at determining the relationship and predictors between bowel preparation quality and e-health literacy in patients undergoing colonoscopy. The study was conducted with 251 adults who underwent colonoscopy between August and November 2023 at a University Hospital in Istanbul, Türkiye. Data were collected using the "Personal and Health Information Form," the "Boston Bowel Preparation Quality Scale," and "e-Health Literacy Scale," which have been validated and are reliable in Turkish. T-tests were used to determine differences, correlation analysis assessed relationships, and multiple regression analysis evaluated moderator-variable impact. The mean score of the participants' bowel preparation quality was an adequate level (2.18 ± 0.64), and the mean score of e-health literacy was high (29.23 ± 5.51). The quality of bowel preparation was inadequate in 13.1% of the participants. Education status was a statistically significant predictor of BBPS (β = 0.182, p = 0.017). A significant difference was found between BBPS and gender (t = -2.221, p = 0.027), alcohol use (t = 1.394, p = 0.013), and chronic disease status (t = -0.826, p = 0.007). A significant difference was found between the mean e-HEALS score and working condition (t = -1.789, p = 0.037). No correlation was found between the quality of bowel preparation and e-HEALS (p > 0.05). Functional and interactive tools are recommended to measure the level of health literacy in patients undergoing colonoscopy.