[Validation of the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) in Spanish University Students]

One of the scales most used to measure quickly and easily eHealth Literacy is the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS); however, there was no validation of this scale in Spanish. Therefore, the aim of this study was to adapt and validate the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) to the Spanish context.

Spanish translation of the scale eHEALS was administered along with other scales to measure some indicators of psychological well-being (self-esteem, subjective vitality and life satisfaction). A sample of 447 university students aged between 18 and 45 years was selected. An exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, analysis of invariance, reliability, temporal stability and bivariate correlations were performed.

Exploratory factor analysis revealed a monofactorial structure that explained 52.55% of variance, with high factor loadings of the items. Reliability of 0.87 and test-retest correlation of 0.78 was obtained. The confirmatory factor analysis showed appropriate adjustments indices: χ2=66.60; p=0.00; χ2/ df=4.44; comparative fit index=0.97; incremental fit index=0.97; tucker lewis index=0.94; root mean square of approximattion =0.08; standardized root mean square residual=0.05. The questionnaire was invariant by gender. Regarding the criterion validity, a statistically significant and positive correlations between 0.12 and 0.16 with three indicators of psychological wellbeing was obtained (self-esteem, subjective vitality and life satisfaction).

The spanish version of the eHEALS tested in this work has shown to be a valid and reliable scale to measure eHealth competence in university students.