This study examined the relationship between the Internet development and various social, economic and political factors that are hypothesized to affect the Internet growth. Using secondary data for 28 sampled Asian countries, this study tested seven hypotheses about the impact of various factors on Internet growth. The findings show that the Internet penetration is related to a country’s wealt...

Introduction. This study investigated the information seeking behaviour and needs of parents of paediatric patients and their motives for seeking Internet-based information. Method. A questionnaire survey of 121 parents was conducted in a paediatric clinic of a Greek university hospital. Analysis. The data were analysed using SPSS; descriptive statistics were used to summarise the data and non-...

The lack of widely available, affordable broadband Internet access has spurred a movement in which municipalities are rolling out wireless broadband networks. This movement has raised a number of questions including: Why are municipalities acting as the early adopters of wireless broadband technology? How does increased state regulation of municipal broadband networks affect this trend and how ...

Current healthcare guidelines identify low health literacy as a major barrier to optimal health communication. Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals can obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. An estimated 90 million people in the U.S. have marginal health literacy. The Institute of Medicine and th...

Few studies in the eHealth literature have paid attention to participatory eHealth behaviors. Addressing this gap, the present study examines how informational and participatory eHealth behaviors are related to eHealth literacy, Internet use and Facebook interaction, as well as user characteristics. Drawing on a sample of college students (N = 540), results from Structural Equation Modeling (SE...

The purpose of this study is to examine the degree of participation in online polls and its relationship to the perception of online polls, information literacy, and the political efficacy of Internet users in mainland China. Data was gathered online from a sample of 419 Internet users. Results show that perceptions of both the usefulness and trustworthiness of online polls positively correlate...

Author Details (please list these in the order they should appear in the published article) Please check this box if you do not wish your email address to be published Structured Abstract: Purpose: Digital technologies have transformed what it means to be literate and to experience literacy. Various literacies have been coined to capture this transformation including established literacies like...

BACKGROUND The extensive availability of online health information offers the public opportunities to become independently informed about their care, but what affects the successful retrieval and understanding of accurate and detailed information? We have limited knowledge about the ways individuals use the Internet and the personal characteristics that affect online health literacy. OBJECTIV...

BACKGROUND The Internet has revolutionized the way in which many Americans search for health care information. Unfortunately, being able to use the Internet for this purpose is predicated on having access to the Internet and being able to understand and comprehend online health information. This is especially important for parents of children with special health care needs who are forced to mak...

Objective: Patient engagement in health care information technology (IT) is required for government reimbursement programs. This research surveyed one older adult group to determine their willingness to use health information from a variety of sources. Health literacy was also measured using the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) and eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) tools. Method: Regression models determi...