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

**Authors:** Michael Splaine, Nora Reder, Kate Gordon

PMC · DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igaf122.3792 · 2025-12-31

## 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.

## Key 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.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12761532