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Digital Health Information Use, Trust, and Language-Related Disparities in Health Literacy in South Tyrol, Italy: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

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Τίτλος: Digital Health Information Use, Trust, and Language-Related Disparities in Health Literacy in South Tyrol, Italy: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.
Συγγραφείς: Ausserhofer D; Institute of General Practice and Public Health, Claudiana-College of Health Professions, Lorenz Böhler Street 13, Bolzano-Bozen, Bolzano, 39100, Italy, 39 0471 067 ext 392., Barbieri V; Institute of General Practice and Public Health, Claudiana-College of Health Professions, Lorenz Böhler Street 13, Bolzano-Bozen, Bolzano, 39100, Italy, 39 0471 067 ext 392., Lombardo S; Provincial Institute for Statistics of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol, Bolzano-Bozen, Bolzano, Italy., Gärtner T; Provincial Institute for Statistics of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol, Bolzano-Bozen, Bolzano, Italy., Eisendle K; Directorate, Claudiana-College of Health Professions, Bolzano-Bozen, Italy., Piccoliori G; Institute of General Practice and Public Health, Claudiana-College of Health Professions, Lorenz Böhler Street 13, Bolzano-Bozen, Bolzano, 39100, Italy, 39 0471 067 ext 392., Engl A; Institute of General Practice and Public Health, Claudiana-College of Health Professions, Lorenz Böhler Street 13, Bolzano-Bozen, Bolzano, 39100, Italy, 39 0471 067 ext 392., Wiedermann CJ; Institute of General Practice and Public Health, Claudiana-College of Health Professions, Lorenz Böhler Street 13, Bolzano-Bozen, Bolzano, 39100, Italy, 39 0471 067 ext 392.
Πηγή: JMIR formative research [JMIR Form Res] 2026 Sep 24; Vol. 10, pp. e80934. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Sep 24.
Τύπος έκδοσης: Journal Article
Γλώσσα: English
Στοιχεία περιοδικού: Publisher: JMIR Publications Country of Publication: Canada NLM ID: 101726394 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2561-326X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 2561326X NLM ISO Abbreviation: JMIR Form Res Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s): Original Publication: Toronto, ON, Canada : JMIR Publications, [2017]-
Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): Health Literacy*/statistics & numerical data , Health Literacy*/standards , Trust*/psychology , Language*, Humans ; Italy ; Female ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Male ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Digital Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Aged ; Digital Media
Περίληψη: Background: Health literacy (HL) is a crucial determinant of population health; however, disparities persist in multilingual settings. In South Tyrol, Italy, where German- and Italian-speaking populations coexist within a unified health care system, HL disparities may reflect differences in language, culture, and digital engagement.
Objective: This study investigated whether the usage of digital health information mediates the relationship between language group and HL and examined informational trust and other sociodemographic factors as covariates of HL.
Methods: Data were obtained from a population-based survey conducted in South Tyrol, Italy. The analytical sample comprised 1500 participants with adequate responses to the 16-item Health Literacy Survey European Union Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q16) instrument and an identified language group. Mediation analysis was performed using PROCESS Model 4 (5000 bootstrap samples), with use of digital health information as the mediator, language group as the predictor, and HL as the outcome. Covariates included age, sex, education, self-rated health, trust in professional information sources, and trust in health information on the internet.
Results: Italian-speaking participants showed significantly higher HL scores (mean 12.54, SD 3.31 vs mean 11.56, SD 3.48 on a 0-16 scale; P<.001) and reported more frequent digital health information use (P=.003) compared with German-speaking participants. Digital health information use was weakly positively correlated with HL in bivariate analyses (r=0.11). In the fully adjusted mediation model, the indirect effect of language group on HL through digital health information use was not significant (B=0.018, 95% bootstrap CI -0.035 to 0.074; partially standardized effect=0.005), whereas the direct effect of language group remained robust (B=0.96; P<.001). Trust in professional health information (B=0.39; P<.001) and trust in health information on the internet (B=0.61; P<.001) were both positively associated with HL.
Conclusions: Although digital engagement and online trust are related to HL, they do not explain the persistent language-based disparities in HL observed in South Tyrol. Public health strategies should prioritize strengthening critical appraisal skills, fostering trust in professional health information sources, and improving digital access to effectively address HL inequalities in multilingual populations.
(© Dietmar Ausserhofer, Verena Barbieri, Stefano Lombardo, Timon Gärtner, Klaus Eisendle, Giuliano Piccoliori, Adolf Engl, Christian Josef Wiedermann. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org).)
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Contributed Indexing: Keywords: 16-item Health Literacy Survey European Union Questionnaire; HLS-EU-Q16; bilingual; digital engagement; digital health; disparities; health information; health literacy; language; mediation; multilingual
Entry Date(s): Date Created: 20260924 Date Completed: 20260924 Latest Revision: 20261003
Update Code: 20261004
PubMed Central ID: PMC13607262
DOI: 10.2196/80934
PMID: 42784772
Βάση Δεδομένων: MEDLINE
Περιγραφή
ISSN:2561-326X
DOI:10.2196/80934