Gül Seçkin|Dale Yeatts|Susan M. Hughes|Cassie Hudson|Valarie Bell
Being an Informed Consumer of Health Information and Assessment of Electronic Health Literacy in a National Sample of Internet Users: Validity and Reliability of the e-HLS Instrument
University of North Texas|University of North Texas|University of North Texas|University of North Texas|Texas Woman's University
backgroundthe internet capacity provide information transcends time space barriers continues transform people find apply information liveswith current explosion electronic sources health information including thousands websites hundreds mobile phone health apps electronic health literacy gaining increasing prominence health medical researchan important dimension electronic health literacy ability appraise quality information facilitate everyday health care decisionshealth information seekers explore care options gathering information health websites blogs webbased forums social networking websites advertisements despite fact information quality internet varies greatlynonetheless research lagged behind establishing multidimensional instruments part due evolving construct health literacy objectivethe purpose study examine psychometric properties new electronic health literacy ehealth literacy measure national sample internet users specific attention older usersour paper motivated fact ehealth literacy underinvestigated area inquirymethods sample drawn panel 55000 participants maintained knowledge networks largest national probabilitybased research panel webbased surveyswe examined factor structure 19item electronic health literacy scale ehls exploratory factor analysis efa confirmatory factor analysis internal consistency reliability construct validity sample adults n710 subsample older adults n194the amos graphics program 210 used construct measurement model linking latent factors obtained efa 19 indicators determine whether factor structure achieved good fit entire sample subsample age 60 yearslinear regression analyses performed separate models examine 1 construct validity ehls 2 association respondents demographic characteristics health variables resultsthe efa produced 3factor solution communication 2 items trust 4 items action 13 itemsthe 3factor structure ehls found invariant subsamplefit indices obtained follows full sample 2 710698547df131 p001 comparative fit index cfi094normed fit index nfi092root mean squared error approximation rmsea008and older subsample age 60 years 2 194275744df131 p001 cfi095nfi090rmsea008 conclusionsthe analyses supported ehls validity internal reliability full sample subsamplethe overwhelming majority respondents reported great deal confidence ability appraise quality information obtained internet yet less half reported performing quality checks contained ehls