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.