The Expanding Digital Divide: Digital Health Access Inequities during the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City

Excerpt

As telemedicine use for healthcare delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic has grown, access to technology has emerged as a fundamental determinant of access to care. Accordingly, digital access is now being recognized as a social determinant of health [1]. Over 21 million individuals in the USA lack broadband internet access, limiting access to telemedicine [2, 3]. New York State (NYS) has been one of the early epicenters of the pandemic in the USA. While NYS has a 99.9% broadband internet infrastructure, nearly one-third of New York City (NYC) households, or approximately 2.2 million residents, lack a home broadband internet subscription [4‐6]. Furthermore, significant disparities in broadband internet access exist for NYC residents who are low income, racial/ethnic minority, over the age of 65, or have a non-English primary language. Digital literacy is also lower among these populations [5‐7]. …