IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i8p1643-d161716.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Media Health Literacy, eHealth Literacy, and the Role of the Social Environment in Context

Author

Listed:
  • Diane Levin-Zamir

    (Department of Health Education and Promotion, Clalit Health Services, Tel Aviv 62098, Israel
    School of Public Health, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel)

  • Isabella Bertschi

    (Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zürich 8050, Switzerland)

Abstract

Health literacy describes skills and competencies that enable people to gain access to, understand and apply health information to positively influence their own health and the health of those in their social environments. In an increasingly media saturated and digitized world, these skill sets are necessary for accessing and navigating sources of health information and tools, such as television, the Internet, and mobile apps. The concepts of Media Health Literacy (MHL) and eHealth Literacy (eHL) describe the specific competencies such tasks require. This article introduces the two concepts, and then reviews findings on the associations of MHL and eHL with several contextual variables in the social environment such as socio-demographics, social support, and system complexity, as a structural variable. As eHL and MHL are crucial for empowering people to actively engage in their own health, there is a growing body of literature reporting on the potential and the effectiveness of intervention initiatives to positively influence these competencies. From an ethical standpoint, equity is emphasized, stressing the importance of accessible media environments for all—including those at risk of exclusion from (digital) media sources. Alignment of micro and macro contextual spheres will ultimately facilitate both non-digital and digital media to effectively support and promote public health.

Suggested Citation

  • Diane Levin-Zamir & Isabella Bertschi, 2018. "Media Health Literacy, eHealth Literacy, and the Role of the Social Environment in Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-12, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:8:p:1643-:d:161716
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/8/1643/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/8/1643/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bo Xie, 2011. "Older adults, e‐health literacy, and collaborative learning: An experimental study," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(5), pages 933-946, May.
    2. Bo Xie, 2011. "Older adults, e-health literacy, and collaborative learning: An experimental study," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(5), pages 933-946, May.
    3. Mariano Hernán-García & Blanca Botello-Díaz & Jorge Marcos-Marcos & Silvia Toro-Cárdenas & Eugenia Gil-García, 2015. "Understanding children: a qualitative study on health assets of the Internet in Spain," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(2), pages 239-247, February.
    4. Lee, Shoou-Yih D. & Arozullah, Ahsan M. & Cho, Young Ik, 2004. "Health literacy, social support, and health: a research agenda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(7), pages 1309-1321, April.
    5. Bo Xie, 2011. "Experimenting on the impact of learning methods and information presentation channels on older adults' e‐health literacy," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(9), pages 1797-1807, September.
    6. Bo Xie, 2011. "Experimenting on the impact of learning methods and information presentation channels on older adults' e-health literacy," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(9), pages 1797-1807, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Uday Patil & Uliana Kostareva & Molly Hadley & Jennifer A. Manganello & Orkan Okan & Kevin Dadaczynski & Philip M. Massey & Joy Agner & Tetine Sentell, 2021. "Health Literacy, Digital Health Literacy, and COVID-19 Pandemic Attitudes and Behaviors in U.S. College Students: Implications for Interventions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Zeyu Tang & Jinzhu Jia, 2022. "PM2.5-Related Neonatal Infections: A Global Burden Study from 1990 to 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-15, April.
    3. Ya Gao & Chen Chen & Hong Hui & Mingyue Chen & Ning Chen & Hong Chen & Weiming Zeng & Yan Wei & Zhaoxin Wang & Jianwei Shi, 2022. "Improving Health Literacy: Analysis of the Relationship between Residents’ Usage of Information Channels and Health Literacy in Shanghai, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-11, May.
    4. Zeyu Tang & Jinzhu Jia, 2022. "The Association between the Burden of PM 2.5 -Related Neonatal Preterm Birth and Socio-Demographic Index from 1990 to 2019: A Global Burden Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-20, August.
    5. Zheng-An Lu & Le Shi & Jian-Yu Que & Yong-Bo Zheng & Qian-Wen Wang & Wei-Jian Liu & Yue-Tong Huang & Xiao-Xing Liu & Kai Yuan & Wei Yan & Jie Shi & Yan-Ping Bao & Lin Lu, 2022. "Accessibility to Digital Mental Health Services among the General Public throughout COVID-19: Trajectories, Influencing Factors and Association with Long-Term Mental Health Symptoms," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-20, March.
    6. Junjie Zhou & Tingting Fan, 2019. "Understanding the Factors Influencing Patient E-Health Literacy in Online Health Communities (OHCs): A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-12, July.
    7. Siti Nur Hidayah Abd-Rahim & Mohamed-Syarif Mohamed-Yassin & Suraya Abdul-Razak & Mohamad Rodi Isa & Noorhida Baharudin, 2021. "The Prevalence of Limited Health Literacy and Its Associated Factors among Elderly Patients Attending an Urban Academic Primary Care Clinic in Malaysia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-15, August.
    8. Don Nutbeam & Diane Levin-Zamir & Gill Rowlands, 2018. "Health Literacy in Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-3, November.
    9. Chia-Shiang Cheng & Yi-Jen Huang & Chien-An Sun & Chi An & Yu-Tien Chang & Chi-Ming Chu & Chi-Wen Chang, 2022. "Gender-Specific Determinants of eHealth Literacy: Results from an Adolescent Internet Behavior Survey in Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-11, January.
    10. Jessica Liu & Donghee N. Lee & Elise M. Stevens, 2023. "Characteristics Associated with Young Adults’ Intentions to Engage with Anti-Vaping Instagram Posts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(11), pages 1-13, June.
    11. Margaret Gallagher & Caitlin O’Leary & Aimee McGreal-Ballone & Richard Duffy, 2023. "The portrayal of mental health in Irish mainstream news media," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(2), pages 467-475, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zolbin, Maedeh Ghorbanian & Nikou, Shahrokh, 2021. "Health Literacy Improvement and Use of Digital Health Services in Aged People: A Systematic Literature Review," 23rd ITS Biennial Conference, Online Conference / Gothenburg 2021. Digital societies and industrial transformations: Policies, markets, and technologies in a post-Covid world 238062, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    2. Agatha Ravi Vidiasratri & Peter A. Bath, 2022. "Association between Internet Usage and Quality of Life of Elderly People in England: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-11, November.
    3. Kyung Han You (Ryu) & Jaehee Cho, 2020. "Investigation of the Influential Factors in Leading People to Seek Mobile Information for the Promotion of Health-Related Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Judith Aponte & Kathleen M. Nokes, 2017. "Validating an electronic health literacy scale in an older hispanic population," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(17-18), pages 2703-2711, September.
    5. Chengbo Li & Mengyao Liu & Jin Zhou & Mei Zhang & Huanchang Liu & Yuting Wu & Hui Li & George W. Leeson & Tingting Deng, 2022. "Do Health Information Sources Influence Health Literacy among Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Urban Areas of Western China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-19, October.
    6. Chinn, Deborah, 2011. "Critical health literacy: A review and critical analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 60-67, July.
    7. Barata, Paula C. & Gucciardi, Enza & Ahmad, Farah & Stewart, Donna E., 2006. "Cross-cultural perspectives on research participation and informed consent," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 479-490, January.
    8. Yolanda Álvarez-Pérez & Lilisbeth Perestelo-Pérez & Amado Rivero-Santanta & Alezandra Torres-Castaño & Ana Toledo-Chávarri & Andrea Duarte-Díaz & Vinita Mahtani-Chugani & María Dolores Marrero-Díaz & , 2022. "Co-Creation of Massive Open Online Courses to Improve Digital Health Literacy in Pregnant and Lactating Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-15, January.
    9. Joy Agner & Monet Meyer & Tyra Mahealani Kaukau & Maileen Liu & Lisa Nakamura & Adriana Botero & Tetine Sentell, 2023. "Health Literacy, Social Networks, and Health Outcomes among Mental Health Clubhouse Members in Hawai‘i," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-17, January.
    10. Cho, Young Ik & Lee, Shoou-Yih D. & Arozullah, Ahsan M. & Crittenden, Kathleen S., 2008. "Effects of health literacy on health status and health service utilization amongst the elderly," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1809-1816, April.
    11. Suryanaryana Murty Upadhyayula & Srinivasa Rao Mutheneni & Madhusudhan Rao Kadiri & Sriram Kumaraswamy & Balakrishna Nagalla, 2012. "A Cohort Study of Lymphatic Filariasis on Socio Economic Conditions in Andhra Pradesh, India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-8, March.
    12. Bas Geboers & Sijmen A. Reijneveld & Jaap A. R. Koot & Andrea F. De Winter, 2018. "Moving towards a Comprehensive Approach for Health Literacy Interventions: The Development of a Health Literacy Intervention Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-11, June.
    13. Dong, Gang Nathan, 2016. "Social capital as correlate, antecedent, and consequence of health service demand in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 85-96.
    14. Ruoyu Wang & Desheng Xue & Ye Liu & Penghua Liu & Hongsheng Chen, 2018. "The Relationship between Air Pollution and Depression in China: Is Neighbourhood Social Capital Protective?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-13, June.
    15. Wouters, Edwin & Van Damme, Wim & Van Loon, Francis & van Rensburg, Dingie & Meulemans, Herman, 2009. "Public-sector ART in the Free State Province, South Africa: Community support as an important determinant of outcome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1177-1185, October.
    16. Uday Patil & Uliana Kostareva & Molly Hadley & Jennifer A. Manganello & Orkan Okan & Kevin Dadaczynski & Philip M. Massey & Joy Agner & Tetine Sentell, 2021. "Health Literacy, Digital Health Literacy, and COVID-19 Pandemic Attitudes and Behaviors in U.S. College Students: Implications for Interventions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-14, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:8:p:1643-:d:161716. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.