Factors influencing digital health literacy among older adults: a scoping review

Zhen Shi; Xixi Du; Juan Li; Rongting Hou; Jingxuan Sun; Thammarat Marohabutr

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1447747

Factors influencing digital health literacy among older adults: a scoping review

Front Public Health. 2024 Nov 1:12:1447747. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1447747. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Zhen Shi^{1

2}, Xixi Du³, Juan Li⁴, Rongting Hou⁵, Jingxuan Sun², Thammarat Marohabutr²

Affiliations

¹ College of Humanities and Education, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China.
² Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.
³ School of Nursing, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, Hubei, China.
⁴ School of Ethnology and Sociology, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China.
⁵ Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China.

Abstract

Background: The growth of digital technology, represented by the development of the Internet, has become popular among older adults. Implying digital health literacy on older adults also affects their ability to use digital technology to search, browse, understand, and evaluate health information to improve their health status. This scoping review aims to explore (1) the situation of digital health literacy among older adults and (2) the influencing factors on the digital health literacy of older adults.

Methods: A scoping review was performed to evaluate evidence on influencing factors on digital health literacy among older adults in October 2023 employing data from literature indexed in PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO, Springer Link, and CNKI with search terms such as "digital health literacy," "e-health literacy," "eHealth literacy" and "elderly people," "aged people," "old age." The review comprised research articles that addressed issues related to digital health literacy and older adults, excluding non-research and research articles that only expressed opinions without concrete data or material support.

Results: The final review included 28 articles from 4,706 retrieved records. The synthesis revealed that the digital health literacy of older adults was reflected in the scores of older adults in high-income countries, which were relatively high. In contrast, those in middle-income countries tended to be generally lower. The digital health literacy of older adults was affected by socio-demographic factors, related factors of electronic devices, and use and social support factors.

Conclusion: Gaps of study discussed in this scoping review should be narrowed in further studies. Developing digital health literacy interventions with education and training programs should be considered to improve the digital health literacy of older adults. The digital divide among older adults should be bridged by improving social capital and family support through integrated intervention roles of government, community, and family.

Keywords: DHLI; digital health literacy; e-HEALS; influencing factors; older adults; online health information.

Publication types

Review
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Aged
Digital Technology
Health Literacy*
Humans
Internet
Telemedicine*

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Youth Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia, Grant number 2022QN07001.