Health Systems and Adult Basic Education: A Critical Partnership in Supporting Digital Health Literacy

Abstract

Technological innovation often is presented as a way for health systems to deliver services to more patients at a lower cost. However, this increase in technology usage has changed what patients are expected to know and do without any additional commensurate support being provided for patients. A reliance on technology to accomplish things such as disseminating health information and monitoring conditions, as well as communicating with and engaging patients in their health care has the potential to add to current health disparities for patients without access to or the skills to use these technologies. The potential benefit of using technology to increase patients' engagement in their health care rests on the assumption that patients have access to the Internet and devices, and also possess the skills to use both. Yet, like health literacy, Internet access and the associated skills to use the Internet track closely with “longstanding inequalities in income, education, race and ethnicity, age, immigration status, and geography” (Office of Policy Development and Research, 2016) indicating disparities in the ability to benefit from technological innovations.

Keywords

• literacy
• digital literacy
• health literacy
• digital health literacy
• adult basic education