From Clicks to Change: Electronic Health Literacy, Electronic Word-of-Mouth, and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

The upsurge in the digital transformation of society has reshaped how individuals access, interpret, and share health information. As online information increasingly influences health behaviors, the association between electronic health literacy and electronic word-of-mouth becomes a critical determinant of sustainable health systems, informed decision-making, and the public well-being of all people.

Sustainable health development relies on empowering individuals to navigate digital environments responsibly and effectively. High levels of electronic health literacy may foster healthier lifestyles, strengthen preventive behaviors, reduce healthcare burden, and support long-term public health resilience. At the same time, electronic word-of-mouth, ranging from consumer reviews and social media discussions to peer-to-peer health advice, plays an important role in shaping the perceptions, trust, credibility, and adoption of health services, technologies, and sustainable health practices. However, limited electronic health literacy, together with unreliable electronic word-of-mouth, can hinder the progress of sustainable health systems by encouraging misinformation and disinformation and creating differences in engagement with online health resources, as well as undermine reaching broader sustainable goals.

Given this background, we invite researchers and experts from different fields—including Public Health, Information Systems, Communication and Media Studies, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability and Health Policy, Marketing and Consumer Behavior, Education and Pedagogy, Sociology and Cultural Studies, Technology and Human–Computer Interaction—to contribute to the following topics:

• The role of electronic health literacy in promoting sustainable health behaviors;
• Strategies to strengthen digital competencies for sustainable health communication;
• The influence of online communities, social media opinion leaders, and peer networks on sustainable health practices in connection to electronic word of mouth;
• Electronic health literacy, as a tool for fighting misinformation, disinformation, and health-related fake news;
• Online source credibility assessment in digital health contexts;
• How electronic health literacy levels shape interpretation of user-generated health content;
• Electronic health literacy differences across age groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and cultures;
• Cross-cultural particularities of electronic health literacy and electronic word of mouth;
• Youth and adolescent electronic health literacy;
• Influential factors shaping electronic health literacy enhancement;
• Electronic word-of-mouth and its influence on health decision-making and risk perception;
• Ethical considerations in health-related electronic word-of-mouth and electronic health literacy;
• School-based, higher education-based, community-based, and other interventions to enhance electronic health literacy;
• Electronic health literacy interventions to strengthen public health resilience;
• Understanding AI-driven health information (e.g., chatbots, decision support tools) in connection with electronic health literacy;
• How AI-generated or algorithmically amplified electronic word-of-mouth influences health perceptions and behaviors;

• Policy, education, and intervention strategies to enhance digital competencies for sustainable health in relation to electronic health literacy and electronic word-of-mouth;
• Interactions among electronic health literacy, electronic word-of-mouth, and public health resilience.

Dr. Iuliana Raluca Gheorghe
Dr. Natalia Manea
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• electronic health literacy
• electronic word of mouth
• digital health
• sustainability
• online health information
• social media
• digital behavior
• health communication
• public health resilience