College of Humanities and Education, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China.
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.
Front Public Health. 2024 Nov 1;12:1447747. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1447747. eCollection 2024.
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.
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.
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.
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.
以互联网发展为代表的数字技术的兴起，在老年人中广受欢迎。这意味着数字健康素养也影响着老年人使用数字技术搜索、浏览、理解和评估健康信息以改善其健康状况的能力。本范围综述旨在探讨（1）老年人数字健康素养的现状，以及（2）影响老年人数字健康素养的因素。
本范围综述于 2023 年 10 月使用 PubMed、Web of Science、EBSCO、Springer Link 和中国知网等文献索引中的数据，采用“数字健康素养”“电子健康素养”“电子健康素养”和“老年人”“老年人”“老年”等检索词，评估影响老年人数字健康素养的因素方面的证据，纳入研究老年人数字健康素养问题的文献，排除没有具体数据或材料支持的非研究和仅表达观点的研究文献。
最终综述纳入了从 4706 条检索记录中筛选出的 28 篇文章。综合分析结果表明，高收入国家的老年人数字健康素养反映在老年人的得分上，相对较高。相比之下，中等收入国家的老年人数字健康素养普遍较低。老年人的数字健康素养受到社会人口统计学因素、电子设备相关因素、使用和社会支持因素的影响。
本范围综述中讨论的研究差距应在进一步研究中缩小。应考虑开展数字健康素养干预，包括教育和培训计划，以提高老年人的数字健康素养。应通过政府、社区和家庭的综合干预作用，提高社会资本和家庭支持，缩小老年人之间的数字鸿沟。
