General Health Statuses as Indicators of Digital Inequality and the Moderating Effects of Age and Education: Cross-sectional Study.
Alexander J A M van DeursenPublished in: Journal of medical Internet research (2022)
To make online health care attainable for the general population, interventions should focus simultaneously on internet attitude, material access, internet skills, and internet health use. However, issues of equality need to be considered. In this respect, digital inequality research benefits from considering health as a predictor of all 4 access stages. Furthermore, studies should go beyond single self-reported measures of health. Physical functioning, social functioning, mental health, perceived health, and physical pain all show unique contributions to the different internet access stages. Further complicating this issue, online health-related interventions for people with different health statuses should also consider age and the educational level of attainment.