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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1447747
This article is part of the Research Topic Health Literacy and Digital Health Literacy among Older Adults: Public Health Interventions View all 8 articles

Factors Influencing Digital Health Literacy among Older Adults: A Scoping Review

Provisionally accepted
Zhen Shi Zhen Shi 1,2Xixi Du Xixi Du 3Juan Li Juan Li 4Rongting Hou Rongting Hou 5Jingxuan Sun Jingxuan Sun 2Thammarat Marohabutr Thammarat Marohabutr 2*
  • 1 Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China
  • 2 Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
  • 3 Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 4 School of Ethnology and Sociology, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
  • 5 Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    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 sociodemographic 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: digital health literacy1, Older Adults2, Influencing factors3, online health information4, e-HEALS5, DHLI6

    Received: 12 Jun 2024; Accepted: 16 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Shi, Du, Li, Hou, Sun and Marohabutr. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Thammarat Marohabutr, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.