Association Between Self-Rated Health and eHealth Literacy in Higher Vocational Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.

AIM: To examine the association between self-rated health and eHealth literacy among higher vocational nursing students. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Using stratified random cluster sampling, 727 nursing students from a vocational college in Henan Province, China, were recruited. Multiple linear regression analysis assessed the association, adjusting for confounders such as sociodemographic characteristics, family socioeconomic status and academic stress. RESULTS: After adjusting for covariates, participants with poor self-rated health had significantly lower eHealth literacy scores than those with good health. Participants reporting fair self-rated health also had significantly lower scores; though the difference was substantially smaller. CONCLUSION: Self-rated health is significantly associated with eHealth literacy among higher vocational nursing students. Whether interventions combining health management and digital skills training can improve eHealth literacy in this population remains to be tested in future longitudinal and intervention studies. IMPACT: Despite the large proportion of higher vocational nursing students in China's nursing workforce, evidence linking their health perceptions to digital competencies remains limited. Poorer self-rated health was associated with markedly lower eHealth literacy, identifying this population as a potential priority group for future studies on combined health-management and digital-literacy support. REPORTING METHOD: Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement. NO PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: This study involved nursing students as participants; no patients or members of the public were involved in the design, conduct, analysis, or preparation of this manuscript.