New technologies, new disparities: The intersection of electronic health and digital health literacy
Open accessAbstract
Mobile health, or mHealth, is the implementation of digital health services with mobile and wearable devices, and has ample potential to enhance self-management of chronic conditions, especially cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., blood pressure control and supporting tobacco cessation and physical activity). It remains ambiguous, however, whether such technologies can improve cardiovascular outcomes. More importantly, mHealth carries the additional challenge of digital health literacy, which demands particular skills complementary to general and health literacy. Populations at risk for limited health literacy are similarly vulnerable to having challenges with digital health literacy. We identify such challenges and outline solutions to improve access to digital health services and their use for individuals with limited digital health literacy. We present an 18-point "Digital Universal Precautions" as a mandate for health care organizations committed towards addressing and facilitating eHealth literacy. As health care institutions increasingly advance mHealth through delivery of on-line material and patient portals, they face the challenge of ensuring that digital health services and content are available to all patients.
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The influence of digital literacy on the use of mHealth apps becomes much stronger when combined with experience with mHealth apps.
“In other words, the influence of individuals’ digital literacy on the use of mHealth apps becomes much stronger when combined with their experience with mHealth apps.80,81”
From The influence of digital literacy on mHealth app usability: The mediating role of patient expertise (2024) · cites this paper as [81]
The Abstract and “Limited digital health literacy: disparities in access and guidance” section link digital literacy challenges to difficulty using digital health services and apps. They do not say that experience with mHealth apps makes digital literacy’s influence on app use stronger; searches for app experience and an interaction found no such finding. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.77)
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- Authors
- Smith, B., & Magnani, J. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Magnani, Jared W.
- Venue
- International Journal of Cardiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-10
- Volume
- 292
- Pages
- 280-282
- ISSN
- 0167-5273 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6660987
- OpenAlex
- W2947323400
- Cited by
- 446
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 86 · 2024: 104 · 2023: 96 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 40.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Cardiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R61HL144669, R01HL143010)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
- Keywords
- mobile health, digital health literacy, health literacy, e-health, digital divide, cardiovascular risk factors, chronic disease self-management, patient portals, wearable devices
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Telemedicine, Healthcare Disparities, Health Literacy
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