In the new age, telehealth is becoming increasingly commonplace as a means of providing healthcare, as technology and global communication becomes more efficient. However, several disparities persist in the form of a digital divide. This article, written by Sophia Paessens, explores eHealth disparities for disadvantaged populations. eHealth is a system of healthcare that uses telecommunications and technology to ease and improve healthcare services. Though this healthcare system was planned to help reduce social health inequalities (SHI), it is not as effective as planned (Latulippe). This is because of the digital divide and how it affects the populations most impacted by these SHI. The digital divide is the term used to refer to the ever-growing gap between underprivileged/disadvantaged members of society and their access to technology and/or the internet. This can either be because the members do not have access to and can not afford technology, or when they do have technology because they do not have the resources to develop the skills and knowledge to be able to use it. The underprivileged members of society that are most impacted by this divide include low-income populations, populations that face discrimination (such as ethnic and racial minorities, migrants, etc.), and even some elderly people and children.
The graph that can be seen above shows how disadvantaged populations faced with social health inequalities face more of a struggle in paying for telecommunication systems. This is seen when comparing people in high-income and low-income communities’ worries about affording broadband, the most common form of internet connection. More than half of the low-income population (52%) stated that they worried about paying for broadband, whereas only 9% of the higher-income stated that they worried about paying for broadband. This shows that even though some of the population facing SHI do have access to forms of telecommunication and can benefit from using eHealth, they have difficulties affording the technology.
To help the eHealth system reach the important audience that it can be most helpful for (the underprivileged members of society), we must first improve the digital divide in disadvantaged populations. This can be done by offering more public technology in the areas most impacted. Once the underprivileged members of society have more fair access to technology and telecommunication systems, they can then use eHealth healthcare services, and assure their health and well-being are not being discriminated against because of aspects of them like their race, ethnicity, and economic status. Works Cited: "Digital Divide." Stanford Computer Science, cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/digital-divide/start.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021. "Disadvantaged Groups." European Institute for Gender Equality, eige.europa.eu/thesaurus/terms/1083#:~:text=Groups%20of%20persons%20that%20experience,isolated%20elderly%20people%20and%20children. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021. Eikemo, Terje A., and Emil Øversveen. "Social Inequalities in Health: Challenges, Knowledge Gaps, Key Debates and the Need for New Data." Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, vol. 47, no. 6, Aug. 2019, pp. 593–597, doi:10.1177/1403494819866416. Glasser, Michael L. and Peters, Karen E.. "E-health." Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Nov. 2013, https://www.britannica.com/science/e-health. Accessed 30 March 2021. Graph Showing the Link Between Populations and Cost-Based Access to Broadband and Cellphones. Pew Research Center, 28 Apr. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/04/30/53-of-americans-say-the-internet-has-been-essential-during-the-covid-19-outbreak/pi_2020-04-30_covid-internet_00-6/. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021. Latulippe, Karine. "Social Health Inequalities and eHealth: A Literature Review With Qualitative Synthesis of Theoretical and Empirical Studies." Edited by Gunther Eysenbach. NCBI, 27 Apr. 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5427250/. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.
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Welcome to our blog, Medquity!Here we will post extra articles on health disparities to display the profound health inequities in our healthcare system. These are updated every other weekend, so check back regularly! Archives
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