Background: Inhaled treatments are the cornerstone of management of obstructive lung disease, though patients frequently misuse inhalers, leading to worse disease outcomes. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased interest in video-module based interventions for patients with chronic diseases. However, patients’ ability to interact with such educational resources necessitates access to technology and proficiency when interacting with online platforms. Previous studies have found that there is low eHealth Literacy (eHL) among hospitalized patients; defined as eHEALS scores < 24. We aimed to understand how demographic characteristics, eHL, and access to technological resources affect hospitalized patients’ attitudes towards e-learning.
Methods: Adult inpatients in the general medicine wards completed a technology survey that asked about technology access/use and attitudes towards video-module based learning as part of an ongoing quality of care study. Questions in the survey were in a Likert scale style. Descriptive statistics, bivariate chi-squared analyses, and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed (Stata). Using Bonferroni correction, the threshold for significance was p< 0.004.
Results: Among 342 participants with obstructive lung disease completing the survey, the mean age was 53 years, 78% identified as Black, 63% identified as female, and 60% finished high school/had some college education. When asked about their willingness to use video-module education, 69% of patients with obstructive lung disease reported being “somewhat likely” or “very likely” to use those resources after discharge. However, 17% of patients reported being “very unlikely” to use video-module based education. Patient age, race, gender, ethnicity, education, and residence prior to admission were not significantly correlated with attitudes towards video-module education. Patients who did not own a technological device were significantly less likely to report they would use a video-module educational resource after discharge (22% vs. 69% P = 0.003). However, 93% of patients with obstructive lung disease reported owning a technological device. Patient’s frequency of use of the internet was significantly associated with less likelihood of using video-module education after discharge; however, this was only the case if patients reported “never” using the internet (P< 0.001). Out of patients with obstructive lung disease who shared their internet use frequency (n=117), 17% reported “never” using the internet.
Conclusions: Most participants with obstructive lung disease had positive attitudes towards video-module based learning post-discharge. Importantly, most patients had at least one technological device and used the internet at least once per week. These results indicate that assisting a minority of patients with obstructive lung disease to increase their access to technology could increase their ability to use video-based education. Efforts would likely be most successful if targeted towards patients who reported never using the internet.