Resumen

POLONSKI, Tiana Costa et al. INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL INCLUSION IN THE HEALTH LITERACY OF THE ELDERLY. ETD - Educ. Temat. Digit. [online]. 2022, vol.24, n.3, pp.584-597. ISSN 1676-2592.  https://doi.org/10.20396/etd.v24i3.8661696.

Health literacy represents the skills to access, understand and use information promoting good health, while digital inclusion encourages knowledge of new technologies and integration between communities, facilitating the learning process and improving quality of life. This study sought to assess whether digital inclusion and related factors encourage health literacy among older adults. A cross-sectional, observational, epidemiological study was undertaken in Campinas (São Paulo) and Juiz de Fora (Minas Gerais), employing a probabilistic sample of 300 older adults. A sociodemographic questionnaire, the Health Literacy Scale-14 (HLS-14), and the Individual Digital Inclusion Level (NIDI) were applied. Following exploratory analysis, the associations between variables and the outcome of literacy level were analyzed by simple logistic regression models, estimating the gross odds ratio with respective 95% confidence intervals. The average age of the sample was 68.2 years, while 48.8% had an elementary school (complete) education, 72.5% an income of up to two minimum wages, 50.4% a low level of digital inclusion and 47.4% a low level of health literacy. Older adults with lower educational levels (OR = 6.74; 95% CI: 2.48-18.32) who lived with another person (OR = 2.12; 95% CI: 1.22-3.68), did not own a cell phone (OR = 2.98; 95% CI: 1.66-5.38), and had low digital inclusion (OR = 2.17; 95% CI: 1.21-3.88) were more likely to have low literacy levels (p<0.05). In conclusion, digital inclusion, higher levels of education, owning a cell phone and living alone favor health literacy.

Palabras clave : Science popularization; Health education; Computer literacy; Elderly.

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