A Scale for Measuring Electronic Patient Engagement Behaviors: Development and Validation

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Digital Health
• Patient Engagement

Background:

• Electronic health (eHealth) technologies have significantly advanced patient engagement.
• Measuring patient engagement in eHealth contexts is crucial for optimizing care.
• Existing tools may not fully capture the multifaceted nature of eHealth patient engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Electronic Patient Engagement Behavior (EPEB) scale.
• To establish a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring patient engagement behaviors within eHealth.
• To provide a framework for understanding patient engagement in digital health interactions.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and qualitative research to generate initial items.
• Pilot and validation surveys to assess psychometric properties.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to determine scale structure and validity.

Main Results:

• The EPEB scale comprises 15 items across four dimensions: disease information search, physician-patient interaction, social interaction, and self-monitoring.
• Exploratory factor analysis supported a four-factor model explaining 69.411% of variance.
• The scale demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach's α coefficients ranging from 0.865 to 0.904) and validity, with a Spearman-Brown coefficient of 0.963.

Conclusions:

• The EPEB scale is a reliable and valid tool for measuring patient engagement behaviors in eHealth.
• This scale can inform strategies to enhance patient engagement and improve health outcomes.
• The EPEB scale facilitates research into patient interactions with digital health technologies.