Personal Competence Factors Associated with Better Access to Digital Health

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate personal competence factors associated with the digital health policies and programs in South Korea. For this study, authors used digital health literacy tools to find out the major factors of personal competence with regard to the digital health. The scope of this study was including the individual use of digital health devices and the digital health literacy. Methods of the study were covering literature reviews, on-line surveys of adults aged 19-69, and focus group interviews. The study was also incorporated of 12 items of digital health literacy tools for the four-dimensional on-line surveys and 16 items of health literacy tools. About 51.8% of respondents had appropriate degree of health literacy, while about 25.2% of them were in need of HL. With regard to the DHL, total average was 2.78(score range 1~4). In the statistics, DHL was significantly related to the socioeconomic status at .003 level. We found out that DHL was an important factor for health promotion. Supporting policies are needed for the low SES population.