Background: Electronic health (e-health) literacy refers to a person’s skills in searching for, finding, understanding and evaluating health information from electronic sources and using it to promote their health. This is a key factor in empowering patients with chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases, particularly rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Objectives: The aim of our study was to assess e-health literacy in patients with RA.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study including patients with RA who met the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR 2010). Socio-demographic and RA-related data were collected. E-health literacy was assessed using the HEALS (eHealth Literacy Scale) questionnaire. This is an 8-item questionnaire. Each item is measured on a 5-point scale (1: strongly disagree - 5: strongly agree). The total score ranges from 8 to 40. A high score indicates a high level of e-health literacy.

Results: Sixty patients, 11 men and 49 women, with a mean age of 59.2±11.3 years [25-78] were included. Fourty-seven patients (78.3%) lived in urban areas, 21 (35%) had primary education, 17 (28.3%) had secondary education, 10 (16.7%) had university education and 12 (30%) were illiterate. Thirty patients (50%) were housewives, 15 (15%) were retired, 6 (10%) were office workers, 7 (11.7%) were heavy labourers and 2 (3.3%) were artisans. RA was immunopositive in 65% of cases and erosive in 80%. Coxitis was noted in 16 patients (26.7%) and atloido-axial dislocation in 13 patients (21.7%). The mean duration of RA was 14±11.3 years [1-32]. The mean DAS28 was 4.2±1.08 [1.9-6.4]. Regarding treatment, 70% of patients were on methotrexate, 11.7% on sulfasalazine, 10% on leflunomide and 16.7% on biotherapies. The mean eHEALS score was 15.7±9.2 [8-32]. Thirty-one patients (51.6%) “strongly agreed” or “ agreed” that the internet is useful for making healthcare decisions, while 12 patients (20%) “strongly disagreed”. Thirty-two patients (53.3%) “strongly agreed” or “agreed’ that it is important to have access to sources of health information on the internet, 18 patients (30%) “strongly disagreed”. Thirty-four patients (56.7%) did not know at all which sources of health information were available on the Internet. Thirty-four patients (56.7%) had no idea what sources of health information were available on the internet, 36 patients (60%) had no idea where to find useful sources of information and 39 patients (65%) had no idea how to find these. As for using the internet to find answers to their health questions, 38 patients (63.3%) had no idea how to go about it or how to use the information they found. When it came to evaluating the sources of information found, 40 patients (66.7%) felt they did not have the necessary skills. Thirty-two patients (53.3%) “strongly disagreed” or “disagreed” with the idea of trusting information from the Internet to make healthcare decisions, while 9 patients (15%) “agreed”.

Conclusion: In our study, despite RA patients’ interest in digital health, e-health literacy was low. Therefore, in order to address this shortcoming, it seems crucial to strengthen digital literacy education in order to improve access to reliable information, support better use of e-health technologies and empower patients.

REFERENCES: NIL.

Acknowledgements: NIL.

Disclosure of Interests: None declared.

© The Authors 2025. This abstract is an open access article published in Annals of Rheumatic Diseases under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ). Neither EULAR nor the publisher make any representation as to the accuracy of the content. The authors are solely responsible for the content in their abstract including accuracy of the facts, statements, results, conclusion, citing resources etc.