Digital Health Literacy as a Professional Responsibility for Social Inclusion

Background

Low digital health literacy (DHL) is associated with a higher risk of misinformation, unsafe self-management practices, and inequitable health outcomes. Across countries, DHL is unequally distributed along social gradients. From a public health perspective this constitutes a digital divide: access and use have expanded, but the capacity to convert evidence-based information into safe, effective action remains unevenly distributed. Framing DHL as a professional responsibility aligns health-related practice with the environmental determinants of Functional Ability and objectives of equity. This narrative review conceptualizes a minimal professional standard for DHL using an Indo–Swiss comparison.

Methods

Narrative review synthesizing WHO frameworks, systematic reviews on eHealth and DHL, validated instruments (eHEALS, DHLI), national initiatives (ABDM, ASHA, CBR), telerehabilitation outcomes, and implementation frameworks (RE AIM, CFIR). We combined: PubMed and Google Scholar searches using terms; backward and forward citation tracing of key works; hand-searching of reference lists; and expert knowledge.

Results

Appraisal emerges as the weakest DHL component. India combines broad digital reach inconsistent professional moderation, whereas Switzerland has strong structures but not explicit clinical DHL mandate. A three-part minimal standard consisting of screening, teach back, and curated guideline aligned resources closes this gap.

Conclusions

DHL is a foundational determinant of functional ability, participation and social inclusion rather than an optional technical skill. The Indo–Swiss comparison shows that different health‑systems converge on the same governance problem: widespread digital engagement with insufficient professional scaffolding. Embedding DHL as routine professional responsibility is essential to translate access into safe participation and improved functional ability, particularly for older and socially disadvantaged groups.

Key messages

• Reviews identify critical appraisal as the weakest component of digital health literacy, particularly among vulnerable groups who face elevated risks of multimorbidity, and social exclusion.

• Embedding DHL as routine professional responsibility is essential to translate access into safe participation and improved functional ability, particularly for older and socially disadvantaged groups.