Validation of eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) on Sri Lankan population of working age

Background: Electronic Health Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is a unidimensional measure defined by Norman and Skinner in 2006 that measures a person’s ability to understand and use health information through electronic sources.

 

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the validity of eHEALS for working age employees in Sri Lanka.

 

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among managers and senior working age employees using a self-administrated eHEALS questionnaire. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to identify the behaviour of various eHEALS scales.

 

Results: Of 411 questionnaires distributed, 286 responses were returned. The results fit into a 2-factor model, indicating the division of eHEALS scales into 2 subscales with 64.493% of total variance. The factors were labelled as “Information Seeking” (eHEALS1-eHEALS5) and “Information Appraisal” (eHEALS6-eHEALS8) with internal consistency of 0.902 and 0.822 respectively. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis for the organization of 8 questions demonstrates high indices [minimum discrepancy per degree of freedom (CMIN/DF) = 2.215, goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.969, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.985, root mean squared error approximation (RMSEA) = 0.065)] and assures the convergent validity of eHEALS [(average variance extracted (AVE) values>0.5].

 

Conclusions: eHEALS is multidimensional as such that the first five questions and next three questions separately evaluate two dimensions of electronic health literacy of working age employees.