eHealth Literacy Interventions With U.S.-Based Older Adult Spanish-Speaking Latinos: An Empty Systematic Review

eHealth can help individuals improve or maintain autonomy in health management and decision-making, but using eHealth requires adequate eHealth literacy. Older adults tend to have low rates of eHealth literacy, which are worse among older Latinos in the U.S., especially those who are Spanish speaking. Evidence-based eHealth literacy interventions for older adult Spanish speakers are needed, but it is not clear which strategies are effective for this population. The objective of the present study was to understand (a) what researchers who conduct eHealth interventions with eHealth literacy outcomes do to ensure inclusion of older adult Spanish-speaking Latinos and (b) whether it is effective.

Six databases were searched for peer-reviewed studies on eHealth literacy interventions for U.S.-based older adult Latinos, from November 1, 2023, to January 31, 2024. Eligibility criteria for studies were: published in 2000 or later; intervention study with Spanish-speaking Latinos; participants aged ≥ 65 years; and eHealth literacy as an outcome. Excluded studies provided no details of adaptation/strategies to include Spanish speakers, used only phone calls or texts in the intervention, or were not peer-reviewed. Search terms included "Hispanic" OR "Latin*" AND "health literacy" OR "eHealth literacy" AND "Spanish" AND "mHealth*" OR "mobile health" OR "tech*" OR "eHealth" OR "digi*" AND "older adults" OR "seniors" OR "elderly" AND "intervention*."

A total of 2,362 articles were identified; 1,084 were duplicates. Titles and abstracts of 1,278 articles were screened. Seventy articles went through full-text screening, and none met the inclusion criteria.

This result was unexpected, given that several reviews have identified the need to increase eHealth literacy among older adults and Spanish speakers. This empty review demonstrates an important gap in knowledge. Intervention researchers can pull insights from adjacent literature until more evidence becomes available for this specific issue and population.