Diversity and culture-sensitive health information for better digital health literacy: A collaborative community research project on barriers and needs

Background. When answering health-related questions, consumers turn to the internet to find answers. However, finding health information online can be challenging. Therefore, consumers need to develop suitable search and evaluation strategies. Finding, understanding, assessing, and applying health information requires digital health literacy. Hence, digital health literacy concerns individual and organizational levels. Against the background of social plurality and diversity, the skills and conditions of accessibility of marginalized communities have so far received little attention in this context.Objectives. This study examines the use of online health information in daily life from a post-migrant perspective which considers the local contexts of migrants in Germany as a vulnerability variable rather than the migration histories. The aim of this study was to take a post-migrant perspective and to ethnographically and collaboratively study the digital health information behavior of marginalized communities as well as to develop practical and culturally sensitive approaches for actors in health communication.Methods. Collaborative ethnographic field research on information behavior regarding health-related questions was carried out online from 10/2020-01/2021 in the marginalized urban district of Bochum Hustadt, Germany. Researchers from the urban neighborhood conducted guided interviews in their communities. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Results and conclusion. The results indicate that language, content, and media aspects of online health information shape access to and handling of health information for individuals from marginalized communities. The post-migrant perspective challenges migration as a relevant category of analysis and explanation, while substantiating diversity and cultural sensitivity as central components of access to health information and the development of measures to strengthen digital health literacy in plural societies. There is a need for multilingual, transcultural, and technically barrier-free online health information as well as stronger interaction between individuals in a plural post-migrant society and online health communication.