Validation of the Ethiopian Version of eHealth Literacy Scale (ET-eHEALS) in a Population with Chronic Disease

Kirubel Biruk Shiferaw Health Informatics Department, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Kirubel Biruk Shiferaw Email birukkirubel@gmail.comBackground: Although the measurement scale developed by Norman and Skinner is the widely used scale to assess consumers’ e...

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Main Author: Shiferaw KB (Author)
Format: Book
Published: Dove Medical Press, 2020-05-01T00:00:00Z.
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Summary:Kirubel Biruk Shiferaw Health Informatics Department, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Kirubel Biruk Shiferaw Email birukkirubel@gmail.comBackground: Although the measurement scale developed by Norman and Skinner is the widely used scale to assess consumers&rsquo; eHealth literacy, translating and validating the scale for the language of the target population under consideration is necessary. Amharic is the official national language of Ethiopia, with 29.3% of native speakers.Methods: The total sample size calculated was 187 with 6% non-response rate. The internal consistency of the ET-eHEALS was measured using Cronbach&rsquo;s alpha coefficient. Test&ndash;retest reliability was assessed by re-administering the ET-eHEALS questionnaire to 74 patients which is 40% of the total sample size. Construct validity was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis. The Kaiser&ndash;Meyer&ndash;Olkin (KMO) statistic and Bartlett&rsquo;s test of sphericity were used to check the suitability of performing the factor analysis.Results: Of the respondents, 63.1% (n=118) were males and 55.1% (n=103) were aged between 18 and 35 years, with 57.2% (n=107) of the participants being educated to high school diploma level or higher. Cronbach&rsquo;s alpha coefficient for the translated ET-eHEALS total score was 0.94. Test&ndash;retest reliability of ET-eHEALS total score was acceptable for both agreements and consistent with ICC (interclass correlation coefficient) of 0.92. The KMO ratio of sampling appropriateness was acceptable (0.91), and Bartlett&rsquo;s test of sphericity was significant with p < 0.001. The EFA (exploratory factor analysis) extracted two factors based on an extraction principle of a minimum eigenvalue of one. The extracted factor explained 80.2% of the common variance which is 51.8% for factor 1 and 28.4% for factor 2. Except for item, item fit for both infit and outfit mean squares were within the adequate range (0.5&ndash; 1.5).Conclusion: This study depicted that ET-eHEALS is a consistent and valid instrument to evaluate Amharic-speaking chronic patients&rsquo; eHealth literacy level. Since there is no prior validation of eHEALS in low-income country, this finding may indicate important directions for further improvement in eHEALS item performance in resource-limited settings.Keywords: eHealth literacy, validation, developing country, chronic patients, eHEALS, ET-eHEALS
Item Description:1179-1594