Scope

While older adults are the most frequent and heaviest users of health services in the United States, they are also a minority in the use of online health information and have the lowest health literacy rates among all American adults. eHealth literacy, defined as the ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to addressing or solving a health problem, is becoming increasingly important.

What we did

We forged a relationship with the Curry Senior Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center that serves over 2000 ethnically diverse clients located in the Tenderloin, an area which houses more low-income seniors than any other area of San Francisco. In this pilot project, 3 cohorts totaling 13 older adults (>65 years old) were recruited to take part in four 60 minute/week computer based training modules, all derived within the computer lab at the Curry Senior Center.

Results

Participants showed significant improvements in eHealth literacy scores compared to baseline along with an ability to recall key lessons from the health training modules.

Implications

Preliminary evidence suggests that a low cost eHealth literacy intervention tailored to address the unique needs of low-income older adults can improve eHealth literacy in this at-risk populations.

More Information

For more information about Dr. Diego Castaneda's project, please email him at: [email protected].