PROGETTO PRIN PNRR Ageing, health literacy and digital skills through the Pandemics

PROGETTO DI RICERCA DI RILEVANTE INTERESSE NAZIONALE (PRIN – PNRR) Aging, health literacy and digital literacy through the Pandemics

Missione 4 “Istruzione e Ricerca” - Componente C2 - Investimento 1.1, “Fondo per il Programma Nazionale di Ricerca e Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN)” Decreto Direttoriale n. 1409 del 14 settembre 2022, Avviso pubblico per la presentazione di Progetti di ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) da finanziare nell’ambito del PNRR - P20224FZYF

Principal Investigator: Prof. Maurizio Esposito, Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale

Associated Investigator: Prof.ssa Cristina Lonardi, Università degli Studi di Verona

Main ERCf ield: SH3 The Social World and Its Diversity - Sociology, social psychology, social anthropology, education sciences, communication studies. Other ERC field: SH7 Human Mobility, Environment, and Space Human geography, demography, health, sustainability science, territorial planning, spatial analysis

Key Words: Ageing, health literacy, digital divide, pandemics, social marginality.

The pandemic infection from Covid-19 caused a global health emergency, which has projected individuals - especially the most fragile categories such as the elderly - into a new and complex social dimension. In the awareness that the scarcity and, in some cases, the absence of digital literacy has contributed to reduce health literacy excluding categories in need of social support, it was intended to propose this project to create the basis for an evidence-based process widely convertible, reusable and sustainable in the future. The design is characterized by the profound belief that it is necessary: 1) undertake a path that positions the elder at the center of the project plan, investing in an innovative and original management of priorities and needs, strictly related to social and health conditions in times of social and health crisis, aimed at preventing risks associated with possible future pandemics; 2) build a network of skills and interdisciplinary cooperation addressed to a project of digital literacy on knowledge of health and its prevention. The goal consists of different formalized domains that this project will move forward through milestones below:

Milestone 1 Background analysis.

Milestone 2 Qualitative research on the elderly over 65 and digital literacy.

Milestone 3 Quantitative research on the elderly over 65 and health literacy.

Milestone 4 Project Management.

The whole research consists of three main work packages:

1 Conceptual-Theoretical framework: overview of the literature, the theoretical background of the study, the situation analysis and the research questions.

2 The field research.

3 Results: final discussion and exploitation.

Actually, digital literacy is an important condition for the participation and inclusion of elderly people in modern societies. The demographic change towards ageing societies together with the rapid developments in information technologies have created new challenges for digital literacy. In some countries, like Italy, the increase in the proportion of elderly people has called for new approaches to promoting digital literacy among senior learners with focus on the demands of specific fields such as healthcare needs. The set of these actions represents tools aimed at directing aid toward categories of individuals or groups experiencing forms of social disadvantage with the aim of finding solutions so that individual needs and social necessities may match. This project assumes purposes that suggest a digital and media empowerment such as to improve both the quality of daily life and the health literacy of the elders.