eHealth in the Hood: Exploring Digital Participation in a Swedish Suburb

Abstract

In this paper we explore digital participation and inclusion in eHealth in a marginalized neighborhood, a suburb, in Sweden and present a survey method where face-to-face interviews in different languages are used. We also use statistics from a regional eHealth application, including data on doctor's visits, as a point of departure for our presentation and analysis of our data on digital participation, usage, and experiences of, and attitudes to digital technologies and services. Furthermore, we address the United Nations' call for disaggregated data on sustainable development and wide inclusion, which correlate to welfare policies at national, regional, and municipal levels and eHealth. We contribute by using a method to explore digital participation, eHealth literacy and attitudes among disadvantaged populations in among hard to survey groups by highlighting differences extracted from disaggregated data on age, ethno-national identification, mother tongue, occupation, and sex. We compare our results with a national survey on internet use, and data from a digital health app used by public sector.

Digital inclusion in a disadvantaged Swedish suburb – Trust and participation to form Quality of Government

“…The statistics are from before Corona lock down, and after that there are indications of increased use of the app, in particular for testing of Convid-19. The analysis of e-health services [40], concludes and argues that public services need to be sustainable and more inclusive in a digital society. In relation to the arguments made here, the low take up of the e-health services indicates low impartial inclusion and risks of exclusion and low trust.…”

Digital Citizenship in a Swedish Marginalised Neighbourhood

“…Acknowledgement: The original idea for this paper was published in in EGOV 2020 Skill, K. & Kaharevic, A. (2020) "eHealth in the Hood: exploring Digital Participation in a Swedish Suburb," in eds.…”