Roughly one-third of people in rural UK do not use eHealth services, and only 45% of rural premises have gigabit-capable broadband compared to 83% of urban households. This matters because digital healthcare is being promoted as a way to improve access for remote and coastal communities, yet the same communities often lack the connectivity, skills, or cultural fit to use it. The project will interview 30 people—including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller individuals—who experience both the digital divide and regular healthcare needs, to understand how geographic, economic, and social factors intersect. Six workshops using rich picture methods will then map the most common obstacles and the solutions people have already improvised with help from voluntary organisations. If successful, the research will produce a scalable model for supporting digitally excluded groups to adopt eHealth services. This could change how rural healthcare is delivered, not by assuming universal access, but by designing systems that work around real barriers—patchy mobile coverage, low digital literacy, and mistrust. The findings could also inform broadband policy and voluntary-sector support for other marginalised communities.
View original technical description
Digital healthcare is being advocated as a means to increase access to healthcare in remote and rural areas, yet latest statistics show that around one third of people in the rural UK do not use eHealth services. The adoption of digital healthcare is likely hampered by existing digital divides as only 45% of the rural premises in the UK have gigabit capable broadband, compared to 83% or urban households. In coastal areas of the UK 3% of premises even lack reliable mobile phone coverage, and this rises to 6% of premises in rural coastal communities. Furthermore, multiple demographic and socio-cultural factors are known to influence the extent to which individuals are able and willing to use digital services. The health inequalities experienced by those living in coastal communities were highlighted in the Chief Medical Officer for England’ annual report in 2021 and the previous year’s annual report had highlighted health inequalities for marginalised communities. Previous research has suggested that the difficulties accessing and using digital services (the digital divide in terms of access and skills) intersect with and exacerbate other causes of inequality. Subsequently, we have remote, coastal and rural communities with an identified health need, marked connectivity issues and an increased expectation to use digital health services. Charities and voluntary organisations have stepped into this space supporting people to adopt digital services. The two aims of this project are to: 1. investigate how the interplay among diverse geographic, socio-economic, cultural and psychological factors shape the engagement of digitally divided communities with eHealth services; 2. explore both endogenous and exogenous mechanisms already enabling local communities to use digital healthcare by circumventing existing sources of digital divide. These aims will be achieved by working with voluntary organisations who support marginalised people in remote, rural or coastal communities to adopt digital services, including healthcare. These organisations will support us to recruit 30 participants who are experiencing the digital divide and have regular needs for healthcare, among the participants will be Gypsy, Roma and Travellers as well as other marginalised people. We will interview each participant to help characterise the intersection of inequalities and digital divide they are experiencing and gain insights into what steps they have taken and tried to overcome these obstacles. Subsequently, we will identify the most common challenging situations to be the focus of 6 workshops including patients, public and other stakeholders. These workshops will use rich picture methods to characterise the situations and solutions from both the perspective of the individual and those who support them (formally or informally). The solution or solutions that offer potential to be scaled up or across to other areas and contexts will be the focus of our subsequent funding application. Within the project we will bring together and extend existing frameworks for conceptualising inequalities including PROGRESS-Plus and extended versions of Technology Acceptance Models. Subsequently using participatory and co-productive methods we will engage with marginalised communities to develop a research project. The partnerships developed will include a patient and public involvement group for the subsequent project as well as delivery partners from the voluntary sector.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know