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Differences in Health Information Literacy Competencies Among Older Adults, Elderly and Younger Citizens

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Information Literacy in Everyday Life (ECIL 2018)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 989))

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Abstract

To address the research gap on age-based differences in health information literacy (HIL), we investigated how younger (born 1960–) and older adults (1946–1960), and elderly citizens (–1945) differed from each other by their HIL competencies. Data were collected with an online survey of patients using the Swedish national electronic health record system. Altogether, 2,587 users responded. One-way ANOVA with post hoc tests revealed several differences between the groups: younger adults were less likely to value health information than older adults; older adults and elderly were least likely to compare information from multiple sources and had trouble in determining health information needs; older adults were most likely to have trouble understanding health terminology and the elderly to have difficulties in understanding medicinal package labels. The study shows that HIL is not necessarily improving or declining but adapting to challenges of advanced age.

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Acknowledgements

The data collection was a part of the work of the Swedish DOME research consortium (projectdome.wordpress.com). This study was conducted in collaboration between DOME consortium and the Academy of Finland funded research project Taking Health Information Behaviour into Account (HIBA).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of ALM, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Isto Huvila

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

    Isto Huvila, Noora Hirvonen & Heidi Enwald

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

    Noora Hirvonen & Heidi Enwald

  4. University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden

    Rose-Mharie Åhlfeldt

Authors
  1. Isto Huvila
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  2. Noora Hirvonen
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  3. Heidi Enwald
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  4. Rose-Mharie Åhlfeldt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isto Huvila .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Management, Faculty of Letters, Hacettepe University, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey

    Serap Kurbanoğlu

  2. Department of Information and Communication Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Sonja Špiranec

  3. Department of Information Management, Faculty of Letters, Hacettepe University, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey

    Yurdagül Ünal

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

    Joumana Boustany

  5. Department of Information and Communication Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Maija Leena Huotari

  6. Department of Information Studies , University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Esther Grassian

  7. Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Diane Mizrachi

  8. School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Loriene Roy

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Huvila, I., Hirvonen, N., Enwald, H., Åhlfeldt, RM. (2019). Differences in Health Information Literacy Competencies Among Older Adults, Elderly and Younger Citizens. In: Kurbanoğlu, S., et al. Information Literacy in Everyday Life. ECIL 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 989. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13472-3_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13472-3_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13471-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13472-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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