Digital Literacies for Digital Health Realities

This research digest addresses digital health literacies, demonstrating the important role that adult basic education instructors can play in supporting learners to adapt to a changing digital world.We structure this review by first examining the relationship between the internet and health.We then discuss the digital health information landscape offering some definitions.We go on to describe four components of digital health literacies and close the review by linking research and practice, offering implications for adult education. Internet and HealthInternet access is nearly universal for highly educated individuals with at least a moderate income (Pew Research Center, 2024).Demographic groups such as seniors, those with fewer years of formal education, and low-income individuals have less digital access (Federal Communications Commission, n.d.; Tappan et al., 2022).They may require more support in navigating the digital landscape to manage their health.Limited internet access can exacerbate existing health disparities.Therefore, internet access is considered a super determinant of health (Seick et al., 2021).Digital access alone is not sufficient to acquire digital health literacies.The demands of digital health systems require flexible digital literacies and digital health literacies.Digital literacies include the ability to find, evaluate, understand and use digital information and digital tools (American Library Association, 2013), and digital health literacies contextualize these skills within an online health context (Fitzpatrick, 2023; Norman et al., 2016).Due to the evolving nature of online texts, contexts, tools, and networks for meaning making, we refer to these literacies in their plural form.Digital health literacies play an important role in health outcomes.Accessing health information online is one of the main reasons individuals use the internet (Di Novi et al., 2024).For example, learning options for staying healthy, maintaining wellness, and managing health care appointments and prescriptions are but a few areas where digital health literacies are important.However, not all online health information is easy to navigate, interpret, or comprehend.Organization, density, and use of hyperlinks to other resources, among other navigational characteristics, can make health concepts more difficult for the general public with average reading ability to grasp (Daraz et al., 2019).Adults need support to develop the skills that are necessary for navigating online health contexts, giving rise to an instructional call to action. Defining TermsIn the fast-paced, complex, and ever-changing digital landscape, no single set of definitions is sufficient nor universally adopted.In the sections that follow, we offer definitional starting points, recognizing there are obvious overlaps across terms.Digital skills refer to the use of devices like a computer, tablet or phone for tasks such as finding and using information online, understanding how to be safe and responsible online, communicating socially and professionally using email, messaging and social media (Digital Resilience in the American Workforce [DRAW], 2022).However, digital skills alone are not all that is needed to navigate the complexities of digital health literacies.Digital fluency, the ability to successfully move with ease in and across digital environments, is also important.