Nicola Diviani*, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands Sara Palazzo, Insitute of Communication and Health, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland Peter J Schulz, Insitute of Communication and Health, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland Track: Research Presentation Topic: Consumer empowerment, patient-physician relationship, and sociotechnical issues Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2014-08-28

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Background
eHealth Literacy has been defined as “the ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to addressing or solving a health problem”. The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) has been developed in order to specifically address and measure people’s ability to find, evaluate and use of health information in online settings. The 8 items of the scale measure consumers’ combined knowledge, comfort, and perceived skills at finding, evaluating, and applying electronic health information to health problems and has been proven to be a reliable measure in different cultural contexts and in different samples. Yet, an Italian version of the scale is still missing.
Objective
The aim of this study is to translate the eHEALS into Italian and to provide evidence of its validity in an Italian-speaking context.
Methods
In a first phase the eHEALS underwent a rigorous forward and backward translation process, including a series of 13 cognitive interviews using the think-aloud technique. To assess the reliability and construct validity of the resulting scale, a self-administered online questionnaire was subsequently administered to a sample of 117 Italian-speaking Swiss residents recruited through ads placed in the waiting room of a local medical private practice and at a local university. Part of the questionnaire was devoted to the collection of data about the respondents’ health information seeking behavior (e.g., use of evaluation criteria or searching strategies), past experience with, attitudes towards, and expected outcomes of online health information seeking. A second section included the 8 items of the I-eHEALS and two additional items to assess the participants’ eHealth predisposition. A final section of the questionnaire was devoted to the collection of socio-demographic data of the participants.
Results
Results confirmed that the I-eHEALS had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .913) and a Principal Component Analysis produced a single factor solution accounting for 63.3% of the total variance, with factor loadings ranging from .713 to .851. Construct validity of the scale, assessed by calculating Spearman correlations between total mean scores on the I-eHEALS scale and total mean scores on other theoretically relevant constructs, was also confirmed. The I-eHEALS was indeed shown to be positively correlated (p < .001) with self-reported use of the Internet for health-related purposes, general attitudes towards eHealth, eHealth predisposition, perceived outcomes of online health information seeking, use of evaluation criteria to assess online information, and use of searching strategies.
Conclusions
The I-eHEALS is a reliable and valid tool to assess Italian-speaking consumers comfort and skills in using information technology for health and to identify those who may profit from referrals to an eHealth intervention or to online resources within both clinical and non-clinical environments.