Digital exclusion and health
Being offline is not simply inconvenient — it has documented consequences for physical and mental health. As public services, healthcare booking, and social connection move online, digital exclusion increasingly determines health outcomes.
The people most affected are often those who can least afford to be:*
The WHO has been saying this for years — its 2018 resolution urged member states to ensure digital health tools reach the most vulnerable. A more recent report puts it plainly:
"People with poor health and living with a disability, older people, migrants and those with a lower socioeconomic status are struggling the most in accessing these tools."
WHO Europe, March 2026Loneliness and isolation
Being cut off from the internet is, for many people, being cut off from other people too. A 2025 study drawing on 87,256 observations across China, the US, and the UK found a consistent link between digital exclusion and loneliness in older adults.
That matters because loneliness itself is dangerous. The US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has found that social isolation significantly raises mortality risk, rivalling smoking and obesity, with around one in four community-dwelling Americans over 65 estimated to be socially isolated. That research is about isolation generally, not digital exclusion specifically — the connection between the two is one WIRES draws, not a finding of the studies themselves.
What COVID-19 showed us
In the US, counties with higher digital exclusion saw higher case rates, higher death rates, and lower vaccination take-up, because booking a vaccine or accessing virtual care assumed internet access many didn't have.
In the UK, working-class students were roughly half as likely as middle-class students to access lessons during school closures, and mental health worsening among those without computer access was "greatly pronounced" by comparison.
NHS services going digital
Appointment booking, test results, repeat prescriptions, mental health self-referral — NHS services are increasingly online, in Scotland and across the UK. Every shift that isn't paired with a non-digital alternative means people without reliable internet get a lower standard of care. That's not a future risk — it's the current experience of millions.
"Digital exclusion is not a second-order problem. For millions of people it is a health problem, a care problem, and a rights problem."
WIRES campaign positionTurn evidence into action
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