Exploration of digital health literacy in the deep south.

385 Background: As technological advances are implemented in healthcare, cancer patients with low digital health literacy are at risk for inequities. Understanding the community’s comfort with using and teaching technology skills can be foundational for the application of digital healthcare tools. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered prior to community conversations about digital health literacy to understand community comfort with technology. Surveys measured self-reported personal comfort performing, personal comfort teaching, and perceived county-comfort completing technology-based tasks. Participants rated their comfort level on a 5-point Likert scale (1= not at all, 2 = slightly, 3 = somewhat, 4 = moderately, 5 = completely). Mean scores were calculated and mean comfort levels were compared across healthcare providers, lay navigators, community health advisors (CHAs), and community members using one-way ANOVA tests. Tukey's HSD post-hoc tests were used to explore group differences. Results: Between 8/2023-4/2024, 164 participants across Alabama and Mississippi completed the pre-survey, including 32 healthcare providers, 17 lay navigators, 31 community health advisors (CHAs), and 84 community members. The sample was primarily female (90%), Black (74%), and from Alabama (84%). ANOVA tests revealed significant group differences between personal comfort levels (p<0.001) comfort teaching (p<0.001), and perception of county-level comfort in technology-based tasks (p=0.043) with lay navigators and healthcare providers reporting higher personal comfort and comfort teaching others technology-based tasks compared to community members (post-hoc Tukey’s HSD). Conclusions: Digital health literacy gaps remain, with lay and clinical providers potentially overestimating comfort with technology. Baseline technology skills must be addressed as healthcare increases reliance on technology. Personal Comfort p-value Comfort Teaching Others p-value Perception of County Comfort p-value Using Search Engines 3.61 4.72 4.76 4.23 <.0001 2.95 4.19 4.88 3.48 <.0001 2.52 3.16 3.82 3.13 0.043 Searching Online for Health-Related Information 3.49 4.66 4.71 4.06 2.90 4.03 4.71 3.35 2.46 2.69 3.29 2.97 Scanning QR codes 2.80 4.47 4.65 3.77 2.55 3.84 4.76 3.13 2.38 2.44 2.71 2.81 Logging into their Patient Portal 3.27 4.44 4.59 3.87 2.75 3.94 4.76 3.03 2.44 2.59 3.00 2.65 Sending their Care-Team a Message 3.05 4.38 4.65 3.74 2.63 3.91 4.82 3.03 2.37 2.44 2.71 2.58 Personal comfort, comfort teaching, perception of community comfort with technology; 7/17 tasks shown; C = community, H = hospital, L = lay navigator, CHAs = community health advisors.