Digital Exclusion Among People Experiencing Homelessness and Residents of Urban Communities in Brazil: Cross-Sectional Study

TL;DR

This study shows how digital exclusion during the pandemic disproportionately affected homeless people and low-income urban residents in Brazil, especially Black and Brown men with no schooling.

Contribution

The paper introduces an intersectional multilevel analysis to reveal how overlapping disadvantages in schooling, income, and gender drive digital exclusion in Brazil.

Findings

39.2% of participants sought online COVID-19 information, with significant disparities across gender, schooling, and income levels.

Black or Brown men with no schooling or low income had the lowest predicted probability (14%) of seeking online health information.

The intersectional analysis showed a 97% reduction in between-strata variance when accounting for schooling, income, and gender.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic amplified digital divides in Brazil, restricting vulnerable groups’ online access to health information and preventive guidance, with limited intersectional analyses of these inequities.

This study aimed to investigate inequalities in digital exclusion and access to online COVID-19 information among people experiencing homelessness and residents of urban communities in Brazil by using an intersectional multilevel analysis.

A cross-sectional study (2021-2023) involving 2652 participants (n=1353, 51% experiencing homelessness and n=1299, 49% from urban communities across 26 state capitals) was conducted using the adapted COVID-19 Social Thermometer questionnaire administered via face-to-face interviews. Multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy examined 115 intersectional strata (gender, race and ethnicity, schooling, income, and Brazilian Unified Health System use) with online COVID-19 information seeking as the binary outcome; multilevel logistic models estimated additive effects and between-strata variance.

Most participants were men (1600/2652, 60.3%), self-identified as Black or Brown individuals (1942/2652, 73.2%), and were Unified Health System users (2433/2652, 91.7%) without private insurance (2469/2652, 93.1%). Over one-third (905/2652, 34.1%) had no formal schooling; 62.4% (1655/2652) reported low income. A total of 39.2% (1040/2652) sought online COVID-19 information. Being a woman (odds ratio [OR] 1.49, 95% CI 1.13-1.97), higher schooling (OR 1.78-5.59, 95% CI 3.52-8.88), and higher income (OR 2.37-4.54, 95% CI 2.59-7.93) showed a stronger association with online COVID-19 information seeking; public health system use was not associated with the outcome (OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.64-1.33). Predicted probabilities ranged between 14% and 85% across 115 strata, with the lowest among Black or Brown men (no schooling or low income) and the highest among women and higher schooling or income. The intersectional analysis (n=2405) null model showed 24% between-strata variance; the full additive model reduced it to 1% (proportional change in variance=97%).

Intersectional analysis reveals structural informational exclusion driven by additive disadvantages in schooling, income, and gender among participants, calling for digital inclusion policies, critical health literacy programs, and equitable multichannel communication strategies to address persistent COVID-19 information seeking disparities.

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