Digital health literacy
How people find, judge, understand and act on health information across search, social media, apps and AI-enabled tools.
Evidence that begins with real information decisions.
HAW studies digital health literacy, trust, misinformation, culture and health agency, then translates the evidence into learning, practical tools and community programmes without losing transparency.
Trust and misinformation
How credibility is formed, how information gaps are filled and how safer appraisal habits are supported.
Culture and agency
How language, power, context, professional relationships and lived experience shape whether information becomes usable.
What HAW investigates
HAW examines how people decide which health information deserves attention and trust when evidence, experience, culture and online influence pull in different directions.
The programme gives particular attention to African and African-diaspora communities while developing concepts and tools with wider public relevance.
Outputs are presented in layers: accessible summaries, evidence notes, limitations, references and practical implications.
How evidence is presented
Each evidence item identifies the source type, authorship, review date, population or setting and what the evidence does not establish.
Community knowledge, lived experience, peer-reviewed research and professional guidance can all contribute, but each is labelled honestly rather than flattened into one generic claim.
Research evidence
Studies, reviews, reports and academic outputs with methods and limitations.
Professional guidance
Guidelines and standards from recognised public-health, health-service and accessibility bodies.
Community knowledge
Co-designed insights gathered with consent, context and reciprocal benefit.
Expert interpretation
Explanation from qualified contributors, clearly separated from primary evidence.
Research for public and professional use
The research area brings together themes, studies, publications, evidence summaries, insight articles and collaboration opportunities.
Substantial outputs include review dates, contributor information, source lists and a correction route.
- Research themes and open questions.
- Plain-language evidence explainers.
- Publication and report pages.
- Evidence methods and limitations.
- Partnership and ethics information.
References behind this section
These sources make the evidence basis visible and help readers review the guidance, standards and research informing this page.
Reference standard
Health literacy
World Health Organization
Frames health literacy as a personal and organisational capability shaped by social, economic and communication conditions.
View sourceReference standard
Infodemic management
World Health Organization
Supports HAW's focus on misinformation resilience, information voids, trust and credible health communication.
View sourceEvaluation framework
Evidence standards framework for digital health technologies
NICE
Informs how HAW should describe evidence quality, safety, usability and evaluation for future digital tools.
View sourcePublic guidance
Evaluating health information
MedlinePlus
Provides practical public questions for judging online health information sources, ownership, evidence and date of review.
View sourceTurn research into practice
HAW Academy and the tools area translate research into learning, reflection and safer appraisal habits.