Interdisciplinary Centre for Health Literacy Research [ICHL]
förges 4: Strengthening eHealth Literacy among older people
Background
Digital change is now impacting all areas of life and society and is also increasingly becoming part of the healthcare sector. The digitalization of the health care system has led to a multitude of digital health applications in various forms and the way and access to digital health information has also changed. 90% of all German households have internet access and use internet-based applications for more than three hours a day. Older people are also showing a willingness to participate in the digitalization of their health and there is an increasing trend towards the use of digital services. However, specific skills are needed to find one's way in the digitalized health care system. These are summarized under the term 'eHealth Literacy'. eHealth Literacy can contribute to maintaining health, coping with chronic illness and has the potential to strengthen the autonomy and participation of the target population.
Objectives
The aim of the project is
- to investigate how interventions to promote eHealth Literacy among older people with health impairments need have to be designed and to determine the specific characteristics that have to be considered,
- to develop and test an intervention to promote eHealth literacy among older people at risk of chronic diseases and care dependency.
Approach
- Performance of a systematic literature analysis to identify already existing international, evidence-based, multidimensional interventions and good practice examples aiming at strengthening eHealth literacy of older people.
- Empirical analysis of eHealth literacy among older people and their needs concerning a training provision (focus groups and quantitative data collection).
- Conception of an intervention to promote eHealth Literacy in the target population.
- Testing and validation of the intervention.
This project is part of the research network förges.
