Media health literacy, eHealth literacy and health behaviour across the lifespan: Current progress and future challenges

Abstract

Health literacy (HL) is crucial to health as it is associated with a variety of health behaviours and a predictor of many health outcomes (Berkman et al, 2010; Paasche-Orlow and Wolf, 2010; Levin-Zamir et al, 2016). HL is not evenly distributed within the population or across the lifespan. Groups at risk for low HL include people with limited financial resources, members of minority ethnic groups – especially those with a mother tongue other than the local language – people with low educational attainment and older people (Nielsen-Bohlman et al, 2004; Vernon et al, 2007; ABS, 2008; Ng et al, 2014; Sørensen et al, 2015). In a highly media-saturated and digitalised world, health information is increasingly available and accessed via diverse media. The skills to navigate this environment are strongly linked to HL, and as such are not equally distributed within the population. This chapter presents two constructs – media health literacy (MHL) and eHealth literacy (eHL) – and offers an overview of their associations with health behaviour both across different age groups and among special populations. Interventions to improve MHL and eHL are discussed, and conclusions for further research on health literacy and health behaviour in the digital era drawn. MHL (Levin-Zamir et al, 2011) is based on the foundations of health literacy and media literacy. The concept builds on the premise that unlike health content and information intentionally generated by the health system, mass media content is often implicit and can be either health promoting or health compromising. Based on the components of the Nutbeam model of HL (Nutbeam, 2000; see also Chapter 14, this volume), MHL is conceptualised as a continuum, ranging from the ability to identify health-related content (explicit and/or implicit) in the media; recognise its influence on health behaviour (comparable to functional HL); critically analyse the content (comparable to critical HL; see Chapter 11, this volume); and express intention to respond through action (personal health behaviour or advocacy) (comparable to interactive HL).