Digital Health Promotion: A Critical Introduction

Searching the internet for health information or using health apps on mobile devices has become part of our daily routine, yet can be just as disempowering as empowering. This engaging overview critically examines the theoretical underpinning of digital health promotion and the use of digital tools and strategies to promote health. Ivy O'Neil investigates how modern technologies can enhance health services provision and increase the accessibility and efficiency of health communication and promotion. She also looks at the challenges they bring to the social model of health: while eHealth initiatives and your health app may be useful tools, they often focus on the individual and neglect the many social, environmental and economic determinants of health. Digital technologies, O'Neil argues, can have negative as well as positive implications and may be contributing to the ever-widening health inequality gap, thereby failing to be compatible with health promotion principles and values. Offering critical, practical and thoughtful overview of the application and usefulness of digital technology in promoting health and reducing the health inequality gap, this book will appeal to students of public health and health promotion, communication and policy.