Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct:111:106424.
doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106424. Epub 2020 May 11.

COVID-19 and digital inequalities: Reciprocal impacts and mitigation strategies

Elisabeth Beaunoyer  1   2   3 , Sophie Dupéré  2 , Matthieu J Guitton  1   3
Affiliations

COVID-19 and digital inequalities: Reciprocal impacts and mitigation strategies

Elisabeth Beaunoyer et al. Comput Human Behav. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

With more than three billion people in isolation, the status of digital spaces is switching from an amenity to a necessity, as they become not only the main way to access information and services, but also one of the only remaining vectors for economic, educational, and leisure activities as well as for social interactions to take place. However, not all are equals in terms of access to networks or connected devices, or when it comes to the skills required to navigate computerized spaces optimally. Digital inequalities were already existing, yet the COVID-19 crisis is exacerbating them dramatically. On the one hand, the crisis will worsen digital inequalities within the population. On the other hand, digital inequalities represent a major risk factor of vulnerability for exposure to the virus itself, and for the non-sanitary consequences of the crisis. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the reciprocal impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and digital inequalities, and to propose operative solutions to help fight the nefarious consequences of the crisis. We first describe how digital inequalities are a determinant of health. We then investigate how COVID-19 can potentiate digital inequalities, and how digital inequalities potentiate vulnerability to COVID-19. Finally, in order to contribute to the mitigation of this crisis, we propose a set of multi-layered strategies focusing on actionability that can be implemented at multiple structural levels, ranging from governmental to corporate and community levels.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Digital inequalities; Pandemic; Vulnerable population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There is no conflict of interest with this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on digital inequalities.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Impacts of digital inequalities on COVID-19 vulnerability.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mitigation strategies to limit the impacts of digital inequalities during the COVID-19 crisis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Arnold M., Gibbs M., Kohn T., Meese J., Nansen B. Routledge; New-York: 2018. Death and digital media. - PubMed
    1. Bailey S.C., O'Conor R., Bojarski E.A., Mullen R., Patzer R.E., Vicencio D. Literacy disparities in patient access and health-related use of Internet and mobile technologies. Health Expectations. 2015;18(6):3079–3087. doi: 10.1111/hex.12294. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baum F., Newman L., Biedrzycki K. Vicious cycles: Digital technologies and determinants of health in Australia. Health Promotion International. 2014;29(2):349–360. doi: 10.1093/heapro/das062. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Beaunoyer E., Arsenault M., Lomanowska A.M., Guitton M.J. Understanding online health information: Evaluation, tools, and strategies. Patient Education and Counseling. 2017;100(2):183–189. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2016.08.028. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Beaunoyer E., Guitton M.J. Effective use of virtual communities for health-purposes in the elderly. In: El Morr C., editor. Novel applications of virtual communities in healthcare. IGI Global; Hershey: 2017. pp. 127–146.

LinkOut - more resources