Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Dec 28, 2021)
Date Submitted: May 30, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 3, 2019 - Jul 29, 2019
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A psychometric analysis of the Polish version of the eHealth Literacy Scale (P-eHEALS) among social media users
Background:
Social media have become mainstream online tools that allow individuals to connect and share information. Such platforms also influence people’s health behavior in the way they communicate about personal health, treatments or physicians. But little is known about individuals’ ability to find and apply online health information to specific health problems. The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is an instrument developed to measure these skills but it is not available in Polish and there is no evidence on its validity.
Objective:
The objective of our study was to examine the psychometric aspects of the Polish version of eHealth Literacy Scale (P-eHEALS) among Polish social media users.
Methods:
We examined the translated version of the scale in a representative sample of Polish social media users (n = 1527). P-eHEALS was a part of a web-based survey and CAWI (the Computer Assisted Web Interviews) was the method used to gather data. We examined the reliability of the P-eHEALS by calculating Cronbach alpha coefficients and analyzing the principal components. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate construct validity of the instrument.
Results:
The internal consistency of the P-eHEALS was sufficient: Cronbach alpha = .84. Item-total correlations ranged from r = .514 to .666. EFA revealed a single structure explaining 47.42% of the variance, with high factor loadings of the item, ranging from .623 to .769. CFA confirmed one-factor structure of the scale and certify that the P-eHEALS had good overall model fit: RMSEA = .067, χ2/df = 1.981, CFI = .969, TLI = 0.985, SRMR = .038.
Conclusions:
The single P-eHEALS structure was supported in social media users. The study results showed that the items of the Polish version of eHEALS were equivalent to the original instrument developed by Norman and Skinner in 2006 and may be used to identify the level of eHealth literacy among social media users.
Clinicaltrial:
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