Information and communication technology literacy levels among public health field workers of the Western province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) is significant in modern public health care systems. Assessment of ICT literacy among public health field workers will be a great advantage to introduce electronic public health information systems. The study aims to describe ICT literacy levels among public health field workers of the Western province of Sri Lanka and factors affecting the ICT literacy among them. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 340 public health field workers, and multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select the sample. A pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data analysis was done using descriptive and relevant inferential statistics. A validated tool was used to analyze, and ICT literacy levels were categorized by the percentage intervals. Overall, the ICT literacy level was detected as 46.2%(n=156), while there was significant difference between the two categories, with 75.5 % (n=76) of ICT literacy demonstrated by public health inspectors (PHIs) (p=0.001). 58.3 %(n=28) of subjects with 2-5 years of experience showed good ICT literacy levels, while 52.8 %(n=113) of diploma holders and 66.7 % (n=46) of participants who were in the age group of 20-30 years showed good ICT literacy level. According to the Chi-square test, ICT literacy level was significantly associated with age, education status and work experience (p = 0.001). Public health field workers show good ICT literacy levels despite a significant difference among categories and clusters. ICT literacy levels were significantly associated with educational status, age and working experiences.