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European Conference on Information Literacy

ECIL 2017: Information Literacy in the Workplace pp 450–459Cite as

Relationship Between Everyday Health Information Literacy and Attitudes Towards Mobile Technology Among Older People

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 810))

Abstract

In order to benefit from advanced mobile information technology (AMIT) in e-health services, people need competencies in finding, evaluating, and understanding health-related information in varying everyday life situations, that is, everyday health information literacy (EHIL). This study focused on the relationship between EHIL and AMIT use and attitudes towards it among older adults. A paper questionnaire was posted to a random sample of 1,500 home dwelling subjects aged 65 or more living in Northern Finland. A variety of themes were addressed in the questionnaire including a 4-item version of an EHIL screening tool. The response rate was 61% (n = 918). Older adults with negative attitudes towards or having less experience with mobile information technology were likely to have poor self-estimated EHIL skills. Older people are at risk of marginalization in regard to m-services, and these results should be utilized by decision-makers and software designers in digitalization of services.

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Acknowledgements

GASEL study has received financial support from the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (TEKES). The researchers of Åbo Akademi are part of the HIBA project that is being funded by Academy of Finland.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Studies, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Heidi Enwald & Noora Hirvonen

  2. Information Studies, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Heidi Enwald, Noora Hirvonen & Isto Huvila

  3. Medical Research Center Oulu, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland

    Heidi Enwald, Noora Hirvonen, Timo Jämsä & Raija Korpelainen

  4. Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Maarit Kangas, Niina Keränen & Timo Jämsä

  5. Department of Sports and Exercise Medicine, Oulu Deaconess Institute, Oulu, Finland

    Raija Korpelainen

  6. Centre for Life Course Epidemiology and Systems Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Raija Korpelainen

Authors
  1. Heidi Enwald
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  2. Noora Hirvonen
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  3. Maarit Kangas
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  4. Niina Keränen
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  5. Timo Jämsä
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  6. Isto Huvila
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  7. Raija Korpelainen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heidi Enwald .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hacettepe University, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey

    Serap Kurbanoğlu

  2. University of Paris-Est, Champs-sur-Marne, France

    Joumana Boustany

  3. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Sonja Špiranec

  4. University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, USA

    Esther Grassian

  5. University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, USA

    Diane Mizrachi

  6. University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA

    Loriene Roy

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Cite this paper

Enwald, H. et al. (2018). Relationship Between Everyday Health Information Literacy and Attitudes Towards Mobile Technology Among Older People. In: Kurbanoğlu, S., Boustany, J., Špiranec, S., Grassian, E., Mizrachi, D., Roy, L. (eds) Information Literacy in the Workplace. ECIL 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 810. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74334-9_47

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74334-9_47

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74333-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74334-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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