JMIR Publications

Background:

Increasingly, teenagers and young adults (TYAs) seek out health information online; however, it is not clear whether they possess electronic health (eHealth) literacy, defined as “the ability to select, appraise, and utilize good quality health information from the internet.” A number of factors are included in the Lily model proposed by Norman and Skinner underpinning the development of eHealth literacy. It is important to understand which elements may influence the development of eHealth literacy in young people, as the current generation will continue to “Google it” when faced with a health problem throughout their lives.

Objective:

The objectives of this study are to explore potential factors influencing young people’s eHealth literacy and explore the underlying constructs of the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) in a population of UK university students.

Methods:

A total of 188 undergraduate psychology students from a large UK University were recruited as an opportunity sample. Of these, 88.8% (167/188) of participants were female with a mean age of 20.13 (SD 2.16) years and the majority were White British (159/188, 84.6%). Employing a cross-sectional design TYAs completed the following measures exploring eHealth literacy (eHEALS): Irrational Health Belief Scale; Newest Vital Sign (NVS), a measure of functional health literacy; Need for Cognition Scale, a preference for effortful cognitive activity; and General Self-Efficacy (GSE) Scale, exploring personal agency and confidence. The eHEALS was also subject to exploratory factor analysis (EFA), for which in addition to the total variance explained, the scree plot, eigenvalues, and factor loadings were assessed to verify the structure.

Results:

eHEALS and GSE were significantly positively correlated (r=0.28, P<.001) and hierarchical linear modeling revealed GSE as the significant predictor of scores on the eHEALS (F_1,186=16.16, P<.001, R²=0.08), accounting for 8.0% of the variance. Other notable relationships were GSE and need for cognition (NFC) were also positively correlated (r=0.33, P<.001), and NFC and irrational health beliefs were significantly negatively correlated (r=–.14, P=.03). Using Spearman correlations, GSE and NVS (r_s=0.14, P=.04) and NFC and NVS (r_s=0.19, P=.003) were positively correlated. An EFA revealed the scale to be stable and identified a 2-factor structure related to information acquisition and information application.

Conclusions:

This is the first study in the UK to explore relationships between these key variables and verify the structure of the eHEALS in a TYA population in the UK. The findings that self-efficacy has a major influence firmly consolidate its status as fundamental to the development of eHealth literacy. Future studies will explore the influence of body image and the development of eHealth literacy in more diverse TYA populations.