EHealth literacy and digital health interventions

Key ingredients for supporting the mental health of displaced youth living in the urban slums of kampala, Uganda

Bibliographic Data

ID21563753
AuthorsMoses Okumu (0000-0003-2555-3077, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, corresponding author), Carmen H Logie (0000-0002-8035-433X, University of Toronto), William Byansi (0000-0003-2880-9357, Boston College), Frances Cohen (0000-0002-7879-3958, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Thabani Nyoni (0000-0002-0100-6258, Dalhousie University), Catherine Naluwende Nafula (Associates Research), Robert Hakiza (0000-0001-7857-9436), Joshua Muzei (0009-0007-3879-8010, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Jamal Appiah-Kubi (0000-0002-8048-7458, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Bernice Adjabeng, Bernice K Adjabeng (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Peter Kyambadde (0000-0002-9606-218X, Ministry of Health)
Year2025
Volume162
Pages108434
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComputers in Human Behavior (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0747-5632 • E-ISSN: 1873-7692
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.chb.2024.108434
OpenAlexW4402217287
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited50

During and after displacement, many displaced youth face increased vulnerability to poor mental health and can encounter inaccurate or confusing health information. Digital tools create new opportunities to reach more of these youth with mental health interventions. Yet maximizing these tools' effectiveness among displaced youth requires understanding their eHealth literacy (eHEALS; i.e., the ability to find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply this knowledge to a health problem). Thus, we conducted a community-based cross-sectional survey of 445 displaced youth (16–24 years) living in the slums of Kampala, Uganda to measure their eHEALS and its association with psychosocial wellbeing. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis identified a unidimensional measure of eHEALS. Structural equation modeling results indicated that eHEALS was not directly associated with depressive symptoms (β = .08, p = 0.15), but was significantly positively associated with resilience (β = .32, p < 0.001). Resilience was, in turn, significantly negatively associated with depressive symptoms (β = −.21, p < 0.001). The Sobel test for indirect effects confirmed that eHEALS indirectly negatively affected depressive symptoms through resilience (i.e., β indirect effect = −.07, p = 0.004). Our findings highlight the need for interventionists to develop contextualized eHealth interventions that facilitate displaced youth's ability to access, understand, and use health information to the best of their ability and optimally benefit from services. • Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis identified a unidimensional measure of eHealth literacy scale (eHEALS). • EHEALS was not directly associated with depressive symptoms but positively associated with resilience. • Resilience plays the role of a full mediator in the relationship between eHEALS and depressive symptoms. • The indirect effect of eHEALS on depression through resilience was stronger among young adults than among adolescents. • Mental health information, and support delivered through digital tools could advance mental health with displaced youth

Digital health · eHealth · Environmental health · Health care · Health literacy · Literacy · Mental health · Mental health literacy · Mental illness · Pedagogy · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · ICT in Developing Communities · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy · Gerontology