Impact of health and digital health literacy on quality of life following radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer: prospective single-center cohort study

Purpose The importance of health literacy (HL) and digital health literacy (e-HL) in promoting healthy behavior and informed decision making is becoming increasingly apparent.

This study aimed to assess the effects of HL and e-HL on the quality of life (QoL) of men who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) for localized prostate cancer.

Materials and methods This prospective observational study included 104 patients who underwent RP for localized prostate cancer.

HL and e-HL were evaluated using the validated eHealth Literacy Scale and European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire Short Form before RP.

We evaluated patients’ physical, psychological, social, and global QoL using the validated EORTC QLQ-C30 8 weeks after RP.

The exclusion criterion was any difficulties in language and comprehension.

We employed one-way ANOVA to compare continuous variables across groups in univariate analysis and used MANOVA for exploring relationships among multiple continuous variables and groups in the multivariate analysis.

Results Multivariate analyses showed that poorer e-HL and HL were associated with being older ( p  = 0.019), having less education ( p  < 0.001), and not having access to the internet ( p  < 0.001).

Logistic regression analysis revealed significant associations between improved e-HL ( p  = 0.043) and HL ( p  = 0.023), better global health status, and higher emotional functioning ( p  = 0.011).

However, the symptom scales did not differ significantly between the e-HL and HL groups.

Conclusion Our study showed a positive association between self-reported HL/e-HL and QoL, marking the first report on the impact of HL/e-HL on the QoL in men who underwent RP for clinically localized prostate cancer.