Eradicating health communication inequalities in the internet of things era

Benefits of electronic social environments created with the support of IoT enabled devices can be augmented parallel to the communication power of users in equal levels. Even thougha variety of models and frameworks which describe factors associated with the eHealth literacy and online health information seeking behavior are available, it is very rare to have a framework which elucidates the role of social capital in health communication inequalities. Hence, the intent of this study is to develop a framework to explore socio-demographic, social determinants, and social networks' influences on eHealth literacy and online health information seeking among adults. To develop the conceptual framework, the authors reviewed the existing literature on health literacy with the support of Structural Influence Model of Health Communication (SIMHC). The authors anticipate this conceptual framework can serve as a catalyst for better health communication and future research is required to test the relationships in the framework.