Digital Health Literacy and Health Technology. Why It Matters.
Shoshana Bloom
Strategy Consultant - Digital Health - MSc Global Public Health - NED - Mentor
The rise of technology has brought with it numerous advancements in the field of health, including telemedicine, health apps, wearable devices, and electronic health records. However, for individuals to fully benefit from these technologies, they need to have a certain level of digital health literacy.
Digital health literacy refers to the ability to find, understand, evaluate, and use health information from digital sources to make informed health decisions.
Digital Health literacy, combines digital skills; which enables individuals to understand how to use the health technology effectively with health literacy; an ability to find, understand, evaluate, and use health information to make informed health decisions. Both are essential skills required for health technology use, enabling a user to both use the underlying technology and understand, interpret, and apply the displayed information. For example, a person with good digital health literacy will know how to use wearable fitness trackers to track their physical activity, understand what the presented information means, and use it to monitor their progress towards their fitness and health goals. They will also understand the privacy and security implications of sharing their health data and will be able to make informed decisions about what they choose to share and with whom.
Despite the importance of digital health literacy, a significant proportion of the population lacks the necessary skills and knowledge, which will impact an individual's ability to use and benefit from health technology, resulting in reduced technology penetration amongst these individuals, and their communities. This means that many individuals are missing out on the potential benefits of health technology and consequently at risk of making uninformed and poor health decisions. People with lower literacy are at a greater risk of unhealthy habits like unhealthy eating, smoking, and lack of exercise. They also tend to rely more on emergency services and struggle more with managing their chronic health conditions.
The connection between digital health literacy and equity is strong. Individuals with lower social status often have greater health concerns and needs, yet they are more susceptible to issues with accessing and comprehending health information. They may have limited understanding of data privacy issues and utilisation of health data, and face a higher risk of digital exclusion. As more health information is being gathered, shared, and processed through online sources such as websites and social media, and increased use of digital technologies for managing health and accessing health services, the importance of improving digital health literacy is increasingly crucial.
In general, older adults and those with lower levels of education and income tend to have lower levels of digital health literacy. In older adults, lower use of health technologies thought to be influenced by vision and hearing loss, decline in cognitive ability, and decreased health status[1]. However when you overlay age with literacy, you see wide variations. One study found that only 9.7 % of elderly individuals with low health literacy used the internet to obtain health information, however this rose to 31.9% in those with adequate health literacy[2].
The rates of low digital health literacy varies across the world and within countries, disparities in digital health literacy are seen between urban and rural populations, with rural populations often having lower rates of digital literacy, despite the greatest need for technology to improve access to health services. In the UK, 16% of the adult population cannot perform basic activities using digital devices (such as turning on a device)[3] and 7.1 million UK adults have a reading age of under 9 years. Across Europe, 47% of European adults have basic or below basic health literacy (a person's ability to understand and use information to make decisions about their health) [4]. In developing countries, the rates of low digital health literacy can be even higher due to lower access to technology and levels of education, for example, a study in India found that only 38% of the population had basic digital literacy skills [5].
How do we start to address this?
What is required is a multi-stakeholder approach, where governments, educators, healthcare providers and technology companies, align to prioritise digital health literacy as a strategy to improve health outcomes.
Governments must invest in education and training; both digital skills and health literacy, for example in the UK, both health literacy and digital literacy are now key components of the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework, used to guide teaching and learning in schools.?
There needs to be sufficient investment in programmes to improve digital skills in adults. The Good Things Foundation [6] is one organisation working to improve digital literacy and help people become confident, competent and connected online. Providing access to digital skills training and support for individuals and communities who are struggling with technology use.
We must not forget that health professionals also need the right skills to deliver healthcare in an increasingly digital world, and this includes individuals from across the wider public health workforce, such as carers, educators, social workers, and support staff. Training for health staff to enable them to more effectively communicate digitally with their patients and ensuring they have the skills to deliver high-quality, patient-centered digital care, particularly where patients may require support to engage digitally.? This can involve incorporating digital health literacy into healthcare education and training programs, providing resources and tools for individuals to improve their digital health literacy. Digital skills development must be a continual process required to keep up with advancements in digital health technologies and services.
Technology companies also have a role to play in ensuring their technologies can be used and understood by the widest number of users, user-friendly health technology that is more accessible and understandable for those with low literacy.
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Digital health literacy is essential for individuals to effectively use health technology and make informed health decisions. The solution is multifactorial and multi-agency. By prioritising digital health literacy, we can ensure that everyone can benefit from the advancements in health technology and achieve better health outcomes.
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References
1. Jung, S.O., Son, Y.H. and Choi, E. 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35101005/
2. Levy, Janke and Langa, 2014. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25387437/
5. Ideas For India (2021). https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/governance/the-digital-dream-upskilling-india-for-the-future.html
Co-Founder and Director at Vaica Medical LTD
1 年I teach medical informatics, and patient s' literacy is one of my topics. very interesting article thank you Shoshana