Digital health literacy and digital engagement for people with severe mental ill health across the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in England

An unprecedented acceleration in digital mental health services happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, people with severe mental ill health (SMI) might be at risk of digital exclusion, partly because of a lack of digital skills, such as digital health literacy. The study seeks to examine how the use of the Internet has changed during the pandemic for people with SMI, and explore digital exclusion, symptomatic/health related barriers to internet engagement, and digital health literacy. Over the period from July 2020 to February 2022, n = 177 people with an SMI diagnosis (psychosis-spectrum disorder or bipolar affective disorder) in England completed three surveys providing sociodemographic information and answering questions regarding their health, use of the Internet, and digital health literacy. 42.5% of participants reported experiences of digital exclusion. Cochrane-Q analysis showed that there was significantly more use of the Internet at the last two assessments (80.8%, and 82.2%) compared to that at the beginning of the pandemic (65.8%; ps