Development of a perceived eHealth literacy scale for individuals with serious mental illness: A cross-sectional study

Li-Ting Huang; Ling-Ling Yeh; Chieh-Yu Liu; Yia-Ping Liu; Chi-Wen Chen; Chiu-Yueh Yang

doi:10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2024.12.016

Development of a perceived eHealth literacy scale for individuals with serious mental illness: A cross-sectional study

Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2024 Dec 21:92:67-74. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2024.12.016. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Li-Ting Huang¹, Ling-Ling Yeh², Chieh-Yu Liu³, Yia-Ping Liu⁴, Chi-Wen Chen⁵, Chiu-Yueh Yang⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nursing, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Electronic address: litinghuang2023@gmail.com.
² Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Electronic address: YehLL@dila.edu.tw.
³ Institute of Community Health Care, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: chiehyuliu@gmail.com.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Physiology, National Defence Medical Centre, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: yiaping@mail.ndmctsgh.edu.tw.
⁵ College of Nursing, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: chiwenchen@nycu.edu.tw.
⁶ College of Nursing, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: cyyang530904@nycu.edu.tw.

PMID: 39733633
DOI: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2024.12.016

Abstract

Background: The development of an electronic health literacy scale for the population with serious mental illness (SMI) is needed due to individuals' characteristics.

Aim: Develop a graphic-based perceived electronic health literacy scale for SMI (GP-eHLS-SMI).

Design: A cross-section study.

Methods: This study was conducted from May 2023 to February 2024. The GP-eHLS-SMI was constructed based on qualitative interviews. Experts reviewed the items, and a pilot questionnaire was developed. A total of 436 community-dwelling participants with SMI from 20 medical facilities were recruited for psychometric analysis. Ten questionnaires were invalid, and 426 questionnaires were used for analysis. We used the first 220 questionnaires to perform the item and exploratory factor analyses. The last 206 questionnaires were used for confirmatory factor analysis. All valid questionnaires were used to examine test-retest reliability and criterion validity. Research tools included a demographic data questionnaire, the GP-eHLS-SMI, and the Chinese eHealth Literacy Scale (C-eHEALS). The C-eHEALS was used as the gold standard to explore the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and cut-off point of the GP-eHLS-SMI.

Results: The Cronbach's alpha for the 16-item GP-eHLS-SMI was 0.882. The GP-eHLS-SMI score was significantly correlated with the C-eHEALS score (r = 0.733, p < .001). The AUC was 0.863 (95 % CI: 0.828, 0.897), and the cut-off point was 41. The test-retest reliability was r = 0.929 (p < .001), and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.961.

Conclusion: The GP-eHLS-SMI is a valuable tool.

Keywords: Electronic health literacy; Mental disorders; Psychometrics; Validation study.