Digital literacy across disciplines scale for medical students: development, validation, and analysis

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Digital Health
• Educational Assessment

Background:

• The digital transformation of medical education necessitates robust assessment tools for digital literacy.
• Existing frameworks for digital literacy require adaptation to the specific context of medical training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Digital Literacy Across Disciplines (DLAD) scale for medical students.
• To analyze the scale's performance across different genders and academic majors.
• To provide insights for enhancing digital literacy in medical education.

Main Methods:

• The DLAD scale was developed based on Zhou Xiaoli's framework, WFME standards, and ACGME guidelines.
• Literature analysis, expert review, student feedback, and formal testing (n=675) were employed.
• Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (EFA & CFA) assessed reliability and validity, while Kruskal‒Wallis H and Mann‒Whitney U tests analyzed group differences.

Main Results:

• EFA identified a four-factor structure (Technology, Competence, Attitude, Knowledge) explaining 61.5% of variance; CFA confirmed strong validity and high internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.93).
• Overall DLAD score was 3.42 (IQR=0.67). Significant disparities were found, with Clinical Medicine students scoring lower than Preventive Medicine, Medical Imaging Technology, and Nursing students.
• Female students showed higher scores in the Attitude dimension compared to males (p=0.008).

Conclusions:

• The validated DLAD scale is the first of its kind for medical education, identifying critical gaps in digital competence.
• Significant interdisciplinary disparities in digital literacy exist among medical students.
• Integrating digital diagnosis-treatment simulations into curricula is recommended to improve digital skills.