Repository | Book | Chapter
(2019) Information literacy in everyday life, Dordrecht, Springer.
Differences in health information literacy competencies among older adults, elderly and younger citizens
Isto Huvila , Noora Hirvonen , Heidi Enwald , Rose-Mharie Åhlfeldt
pp. 136-143
To address the research gap on age-based differences in health information literacy (HIL), we investigated how younger (born 1960–) and older adults (1946–1960), and elderly citizens (–1945) differed from each other by their HIL competencies. Data were collected with an online survey of patients using the Swedish national electronic health record system. Altogether, 2,587 users responded. One-way ANOVA with post hoc tests revealed several differences between the groups: younger adults were less likely to value health information than older adults; older adults and elderly were least likely to compare information from multiple sources and had trouble in determining health information needs; older adults were most likely to have trouble understanding health terminology and the elderly to have difficulties in understanding medicinal package labels. The study shows that HIL is not necessarily improving or declining but adapting to challenges of advanced age.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-13472-3_13
Full citation:
Huvila, I. , Hirvonen, N. , Enwald, H. , Åhlfeldt, R. (2019)., Differences in health information literacy competencies among older adults, elderly and younger citizens, in S. Kurbanolu, J. Boustany, E. Grassian, D. Mizrachi & L. Roy (eds.), Information literacy in everyday life, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 136-143.
This document is unfortunately not available for download at the moment.