How Health Literacy Influences Online Health Information Processing: Revealing the Underlying Mechanisms

• In Event: Online Health Literacy, Information Processing, and Seeking

Abstract

The usefulness of the Internet as a health information source largely depends on the receiver’s health literacy. This study investigates the mechanisms through which health literacy affects information recall and website attitudes. Using two independent surveys addressing different Dutch health websites (N = 423 and N = 395), the mediating role of cognitive load, imagination ease, and website involvement was tested. Results showed that the influence of health literacy on information recall and website attitudes was mediated by cognitive load and imagination ease, but hardly by website involvement. Thus, in order to improve recall and attitudes among people with limited health literacy, online health communication should consist of information that is not cognitively demanding and easy to imagine.

Authors

• Corine S. Meppelink, University of Amsterdam/ASCoR

• Edith Gloria Smit, U of Amsterdam

• Nicola Diviani, U of Amsterdam

• Julia C.M. van Weert, ASCOR, U of Amsterdam