Health literacy in the eHealth era: A systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to identify studies on online health service use by people with limited health literacy, as the findings could provide insights into how health literacy has been, and should be, addressed in the eHealth era.

Methods: To identify the relevant literature published since 2010, we performed four rounds of selection-database selection, keyword search, screening of the titles and abstracts, and screening of full texts. This process produced a final of 74 publications.

Results: The themes addressed in the 74 publications fell into five categories: evaluation of health-related content, development and evaluation of eHealth services, development and evaluation of health literacy measurement tools, interventions to improve health literacy, and online health information seeking behavior.

Conclusion: Barriers to access to and use of online health information can result from the readability of content and poor usability of eHealth services. We need new health literacy screening tools to identify skills for adequate use of eHealth services. Mobile apps hold great potential for eHealth and mHealth services tailored to people with low health literacy.

Practice implications: Efforts should be made to make eHealth services easily accessible to low-literacy individuals and to enhance individual health literacy through educational programs.

Keywords: Health literacy; Online health information; eHealth.