Christabel Borg Preca, Leonie Baldacchino, Marie Briguglio, Margaret Mangion
Are STEM Students Creative Thinkers?
Journal of Intelligence
electronic health resources helpful people able use yet remain tools available assess consumers capacity engaging ehealth 40 us canadian adults low basic literacy levels suggesting ehealth resources likely inaccessible large segments population using information technology health requires ehealth literacythe ability read use computers search information understand health information put context ehealth literacy scale eheals designed 1 assess consumers perceived skills using information technology health 2 aid determining fit ehealth programs consumers eheals 8item measure ehealth literacy developed measure consumers combined knowledge comfort perceived skills finding evaluating applying electronic health information health problems objective study psychometrically evaluate properties eheals within population context youth population chosen focus initial development primarily high levels ehealth use familiarity information technology tools data collected baseline postintervention 3 6month followup using control group data part single session randomized intervention trial evaluating webbased ehealth programs scale reliability tested using item analysis internal consistency coefficient alpha testretest reliability estimates principal components factor analysis used determine theoretical fit measures data total 664 participants 370 boys 294 girls aged 13 21 mean 1495 sd 124 completed eheals four time points 6 months item analysis performed 8item scale baseline producing tight fitting scale alpha 88 itemscale correlations ranged r 51 76 testretest reliability showed modest stability time baseline 6month followup r 68 40 principal components analysis produced single factor solution 56 variance factor loadings ranged 60 84 among 8 items eheals reliably consistently captures ehealth literacy concept repeated administrations showing promise tool assessing consumer comfort skill using information technology health within clinical environment eheals potential serve means identifying may may benefit referrals ehealth intervention resource research needs examine applicability eheals populations settings exploring relationship ehealth literacy health care outcomes