The Impact of Digitalisation on Social Determinants of Public Health
Authors: Dobrovolska Olena , Kolomiiets Svitlana 
Published: October 2024

The digital economy transformation has a significant impact on the public health system, opening up new opportunities to improve the quality of and access to healthcare services. The introduction of digital technologies, such as electronic medical records, telemedicine, remote patient monitoring systems, etc. can enhance healthcare delivery and accelerate the data exchange between medical institutions. Digital transformation reduces inequalities in access to healthcare services, especially for remote and underserved communities. The social determinants of public health are changing under influence of the digital economy transformation. New social determinants include access to digital technologies, digital literacy, digital inequality, opportunities to use telemedicine and online health services, etc. Access to information technology and the Internet is becoming an important factor in ensuring equal access to healthcare services. Digital tools overcome social inequalities by providing opportunities to receive medical care regardless of residence or social status. Digital transformation creates new opportunities and challenges, e. g. a need to increase the digital literacy of population, to ensure equal access to digital services (including vulnerable groups). Digital literacy is one of the main requirements for development of public health within economy digitalization. Lack of digital skills or access to technology can become a barrier to receiving medical care, improving health literacy, and preventing possible diseases. The digital literacy development is an important step towards ensuring equity and accessibility of healthcare services in the digital economy. The paper tests the hypothesis about the impact of new digital social determinants on public health by building and studying an econometric model. To build a multivariate regression model, we used statistical data for 29 European countries in 2021. The indicator of public health is Healthy life expectancy based on self-perceived health. The following indicators of digital determinants were selected: Households – level of Internet access; Individuals using the Internet to find information about goods and services; Individuals using the Internet to seek health-related information; Individuals who have basic or above basic overall digital skills by sex; Individuals using the Internet to participate in social networks; Individuals who have never used the Internet; Individuals regularly using the Internet. The construction of a multiple multivariate regression was implemented via the MS Excel software. The modeling results showed that such factors as Individuals using the Internet to find information about goods and services, Individuals using the Internet to seek health-related information, and Individuals who have basic or above basic general digital skills by sex have a statistically significant impact on public health indicators. This confirms the important role of digital determinants in the public health development and the need to integrate digital technologies into the healthcare sector to increase its efficiency and accessibility.