ObjectiveTo explore the correlation between health literacy, electronic health literacy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease disease knowledge(COPD) and COPD health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

MethodsThis study adopted the cross-sectional investigation method, randomly selected 120 adult patients with COPD, investigated the sociodemographic characteristics, comorbidity status, COPD disease knowledge, health literacy, electronic health literacy and HRQoL using the scale method, and used Spearman rank correlation to analyze the correlation between health literacy, electronic health literacy, COPD disease knowledge and general / lung specific HRQoL.Whether health literacy and electronic health literacy had regulatory effects on COPD disease knowledge and HRQoL was analyzed.

ResultsThe average scores of HLSQ, eHEALS, COPD-Q, EQ-5Q, CAT were (4.52±0.62) points, (3.63±0.71) points, (9.81±1.63) points, (0.72±0.18) points, (24.02±6.65) points, respectively.The HLSQ, eHEALS, COPD-Q were positively correlated with EQ-5D (P < 0.01), and negatively correlated with CAT (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01).The score of EQ-5D index was negatively correlated with the score of CAT (P < 0.01).The higher the knowledge level of COPD disease, the lower the lung specific HRQoL.Health literacy and electronic health literacy played a chain intermediary role between COPD disease knowledge and general HRQoL.Health literacy and electronic health literacy played a chain intermediary role between COPD disease knowledge and lung specific HRQoL.

ConclusionsWhen COPD patients make quality of life improvement plans, they should not only pay attention to improving the patients′ disease knowledge level, but also consider the importance of health literacy and electronic health literacy level.