If Digital Literacy is an Overarching Determinant of Health, how can we measure and confirm e-literacy in older adults?

TL;DR

The paper argues that digital literacy is crucial for older adults' health and outlines ways to measure and improve it.

Contribution

It introduces validated measures of digital literacy and a process for integrating them into health and social care.

Findings

Digital literacy is proposed as a social determinant of health for older adults.

Validated tools exist to assess digital literacy in this population.

A process is outlined to help older adults gain digital competence.

Abstract

Older adults need to navigate an increasingly digital world-and the heterogeneity of the population’s digital skills (and those of their family caregivers) can be a facilitator or a barrier to care and support and best lives. This poster presents the case for viewing digital literacy as a social determinant of health and a summary of the research validated measures of digital literacy that can be put into place in health and social care organizations. The last portion of the paper outlines a process which can be used to adopt in measures and to assist older adults with access to digital competence and tools.