Advancing women's participation in climate action through digital health literacy: gaps and opportunities

Robab Abdolkhani; Dawn Choo; Cecily Gilbert; Ann Borda

doi:10.1093/jamia/ocac167

Advancing women's participation in climate action through digital health literacy: gaps and opportunities

J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2022 Nov 14;29(12):2174-2177. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocac167.

Authors

Robab Abdolkhani¹, Dawn Choo², Cecily Gilbert³, Ann Borda^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, STEM College, RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
² Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
³ Centre for the Digital Transformation of Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
⁴ Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
⁵ Department of Information Studies, University College London, London, UK.

Abstract

Exploring the contribution of health informatics is an emerging topic in relation to addressing climate change, but less examined is a body of literature reporting on the potential and effectiveness of women participating in climate action supported by digital health. This perspective explores how empowering women through digital health literacy (DHL) can support them to be active agents in addressing climate change risk and its impacts on health and well-being. We also consider the current definitional boundary of DHL, and how this may be shaped by other competencies (eg, environmental health literacy), to strengthen this critical agenda for developed nations and lower-resource settings.

Keywords: climate change; digital health literacy; empowerment; environmental health literacy; women.

MeSH terms

Female
Health Literacy*
Humans
Women's Health