Everyday Health Information Literacy and Attitudes Towards Digital Health Services Among Finnish Older Adults

Everyday health information literacy (EHIL) denotes people's confidence and perceptions of their capability to obtain, evaluate, and use health information in everyday life. This paper presents results from a survey of older Finns on how EHIL relates to perceptions of digital health services. A postal survey was conducted with a random sample of 1,500 Finns aged 55-70 years. In total, 373 completed surveys (25%) were returned. We used an adapted screening tool to measure EHIL and subject position scales to indicate attitudes towards digital health services. The data were analysed using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 3.0. The analysis suggested that EHIL is positively related to more positive attitudes to digital health services and negatively to more negative attitudes to such services. The results emphasise the importance of EHIL as an enabler of the acceptance of digital health services. The study also introduces new methods for analysing EHIL.