Validity of the evidence of the Health Literacy Scale and eHEALS for older people

Abstract

This article aims to adapt cross-culturally two  instruments (Health Literacy and Digital Health  Literacy) for use with older people and to assess their  psychometric properties, through a study with a  descriptive, quantitative, and cross-sectional method,  carried out with 379 older person participants, who  answered the following questionnaires: a)  sociodemographic, b) Health Literacy Scale and c) electronic Health Literacy Scale (eHEALS). The  analyses performed were exploratory and  confirmatory factor analysis, the convergent validity of the factors that were estimated through the Average  Variance Extracted and Composite Reliability. The  result was the presentation of instruments with  adequate factor loadings (> 0.4), in addition to  adequate reliability (> 0.7). The external validity tested by the correlation between the two instruments  showed a statistically significant, positive, and  moderate correlation (r =0.35; p<0.001), presenting  evidence of validity and consistency in the Health  Literacy Scale for use with older people and attesting  to the eHEALS instrument adequate reliability and  validity for this population.