E-Literacy and Quality of Life in Older People: a Comparative Study Before and After the Implementation of an Intervention Program

Abstract

Actions to promote digital health literacy have been identified as mechanisms that facilitate autonomy in older people, regarding greater control over their health conditions, which contributes to increasing their quality of life. With the aim of analyzing the impact of a program to promote digital health literacy, comparing the levels of e-health literacy and quality of life of older people, before (pre-test) and after (post-test) implementation of a program to promote digital health literacy, a descriptive-comparative study, of a quantitative nature, was developed. The sample consists of 25 older people attending community institutions and data were collected using the Quality-of-Life Assessment Scale (Fonseca et al. 2009) and the e-Health Literacy Scale (Silva & Jolluskin, 2017), both validated for the Portuguese population. The results show that there are statistically significant differences in quality of life between the pre-test and post-test. This study reinforces the relevance and needs to develop programs focused on promoting digital health literacy in the older population.