Transactional eHealth Literacy: Developing and Testing a Multi-Dimensional Instrument

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-4-2019

School

Health Professions

Abstract

Theoretically informed measures of eHealth literacy that consider the social affordances of eHealth are limited. This study describes the psychometric testing of a multi-dimensional instrument to measure functional, communicative, critical, and translational eHealth literacies, as informed by the Transactional Model of eHealth Literacy (TMeHL). A 3-phase rating scale construction process was conducted to engage eHealth experts and end-users. In Phase 1, Experts (N = 5) and end-users (N = 25) identified operational behaviors to measure each eHealth literacy dimension. End-users (N = 10) participated in think-aloud interviews to provide feedback on items reviewed and approved by experts. A field test was conducted with a random sample of patients recruited from a university-based research registry (N = 283). Factor analyses and Rasch procedures examined the internal structure of the scores produced by each scale. Pearson’s r correlations provided evidence for external validity of scores. The instrument measures four reliable (ω = .92-.96) and correlated (r= .44-.64) factors: functional (4 items), communicative (5 items), critical (5 items), and translational (4 items). Researchers and providers can use this new instrument as a theory-driven instrument to measure four eHealth literacies that are fundamental to the social affordances of the eHealth experience.

Publication Title

Journal of Health Communication

Volume

24

Issue

10

First Page

737

Last Page

748

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