Evaluating the Psychometric Properties of the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) among Polish Social Media Users

Abstract

Social media have become mainstream online tools that allow individuals to connect and share information. Such platforms also influence people’s health behavior in the way they communicate about personal health, treatment, or physicians. Individuals’ ability to find and apply online health information on specific health problems can be measured using a valid and reliable instrument, the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS). The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric aspects of the Polish version of this instrument (eHEALS-Pl) among social media users, which has not been explored so far. We examined the translated version of the eHEALS in a representative sample of Polish social media users (n = 1527). CAWI (computer-assisted web interviews) was a method to collect data. The reliability of the eHEALS-Pl was measured by calculating the Cronbach alpha coefficients and analyzing the principal components. Exploratory factor analysis and hypothesis testing was used to assess the construct validity of the instrument. The internal consistency of the eHEALS-Pl was sufficient: Cronbach alpha = 0.84. The item-to-total correlations ranged from r = 0.514 to 0.666. EFA revealed a single structure explaining 47.42% of the variance, with high factor loadings of the item ranging from 0.623 to 0.769. Hypothesis testing also supported the validity of eHEALS-Pl. The eHEALS-Pl evaluation supported by social media users reviled its equivalence to the original instrument developed by Norman and Skinner in 2006 and it can be used to measure e-health literacy. Since there is no prior validation of the eHEALS among social media users, these findings may indicate important directions in evaluating digital skills, especially in relation to the current challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.