Abstract
BackgroundIn this digital era, eHealth literacy is an essential skill set to leverage health information available online to promote health outcomes. South Korea has an advanced health information technology infrastructure, including widespread use of the internet and mobile phones. A few studies have explored eHealth literacy in South Korea using translated versions of the eHEALS; however, they were not fully validated. A unified reliable and valid assessment tool is critical to assess and enhance the eHealth literacy level across the population.ObjectiveThe aim was to develop a Korean version of eHealth Literacy Scale (K-eHEALS) and evaluate its reliability and validity employing healthy young adults in Korea.MethodsThe K-eHEALS was developed based on eHEALS, a widely used tool that measures eHealth literacy, and was validated using a sample of 500 young adults recruited from a pool of a Korean internet survey panel. Content validity was assessed using the content validity index (CVI) for individual items and for scale. Construct validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis and hypothesis testing. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to determine the internal consistency and the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluable the stability of the measure (n=55).ResultsBoth individual and scale CVIs were acceptable (individual CVIs>0.67; scale CVI=0.83). Single factors accounting for 50.3% of the variance in the scales were extracted revealing the unidimensional latent structure of K-eHEALS. Hypothesis testing showed significant association between eHealth literacy and hours of internet use per day, supporting the construct validity. Items of the K-eHEALS were internally consistent (Cronbach alpha=.88) and stable over a 1-month period (r=.754, P<.001).ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that K-eHEALS is a valid and reliable measure of eHealth literacy in Korean young adults. Additional studies are needed with more diverse groups of adults in Korea.
Highlights
In this digital era, the internet and mobile devices are integral to our daily life and the majority of the population uses the internet and social media to find health information [1]
The K-eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) was developed based on eHEALS, a widely used tool that measures eHealth literacy, and was validated using a sample of 500 young adults recruited from a pool of a Korean internet survey panel
Single factors accounting for 50.3% of the variance in the scales were extracted revealing the unidimensional latent structure of K-eHEALS
Summary
The K-eHEALS was developed based on eHEALS, a widely used tool that measures eHealth literacy, and was validated using a sample of 500 young adults recruited from a pool of a Korean internet survey panel. Content validity was assessed using the content validity index (CVI) for individual items and for scale. Construct validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis and hypothesis testing. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to determine the internal consistency and the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluable the stability of the measure (n=55)
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