Assessing the validity of digital health literacy instrument for secondary school students in Ghana: The polychoric factor analytic approach

Abstract

The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the heightened need for digital health literacy among the youth of school-going age. Despite the relevance of digital health literacy among the general public (including students), it appears the measurement of digital health literacy is still a challenge among researchers. Recently, Dadackinski and colleagues adapted existing digital health literacy measures to fit the COVID-19 situation. Since this development, the instrument has been widely used with few validation studies with none in Africa and specifically, in Ghana. The purpose of the study was to assess the validity of the digital health literacy instrument (DHLI) for secondary school students in Ghana using the polychoric factor analysis. We sampled 1,392 students from secondary schools in Ghana. The digital health literacy instrument was administered to the respondents, thereof. The study confirmed the four latent structure of the DHLI. Further, sufficient validity evidence was found regarding the construct validity of the DHLI. The findings from the study support the validity of the DHLI and its utility within the Ghanaian context. With the growing need for digital health literacy among younger people globally, the DHLI provides sufficient grounds for scaling them based on their level of literacy. There is a need for the instrument to be adapted and re-validated in Ghana and among different populations to widen its reproducibility.

Examining the underlying latent structure of the sports emotion questionnaire: Insights from the bifactor multidimensional item response theory

“…This research design was appropriate because this study went through distinct scientific stages from the planning phase through to the estimation of sample size, data collection and the evaluation of the reliability and validity with different statistical tools ( Arafat, 2016a ). Although there happens to be predominant use of a cross-sectional survey design in recent validation studies (see Agormedah et al, 2022 ; Ankomah et al, 2022 ; Quansah et al, 2022b , c ; Srem-Sai et al, 2022 ), emerging knowledge from scholars is that validation study can be considered as a research design since every stage of validation research has scientifically established rudiments that contradicts the fundamental idea of cross-sectional design ( Anthoine et al, 2014 ; Arafat, 2016b ; Arafat et al, 2016 ).…”

A cross‐sectional study of university students' pocket money variance and its relationship with digital health literacy and subjective well‐being in Ghana

“…After several validations, the COVID‐DHLI with 4 dimensions and 12 items has been found to have a high level of validity. 41 , 42 The dimensions entail information searching, adding self‐generated content, judging the reliability of information searched and determining the relevance of the information searched. Each dimension comprised 4 items measured on a 4‐point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very easy), 2 (easy), 3 (difficult), and 4 (very difficult).…”

Assessing Internet Surfing Behaviours and Digital Health Literacy among University Students in Ghana during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The instrument has 5 subscales and 15 items. Meanwhile, some validation studies [45,47] have confirmed a COVID-19 DHL instrument that includes 4 subscales (information searching, reliability, self-generated content, and relevance) and 12 items (3 on each subscale) with a greater validity [45,47]. Each subscale was measured on 3 levels: 1-sufficient, 2-problematic, and 3-inadequate.…”

“…Each subscale was measured on 3 levels: 1-sufficient, 2-problematic, and 3-inadequate. The reliability coefficient values for the newly validated DHL instrument using the McDonald Omega ω method ranged between 0.735 and 0.869, which is considered acceptable with good usability in Ghana [45]. Informationsearching platforms of participants were measured by asking each participant to "indicate how often you currently use these sources of information or otherwise relating to COVID-19".…”

“…University students comprise the population that primarily uses digital technologies and web-based health information. Many adolescents and young adults use the internet as their primary source of health information, spend a large amount of time online, utilize more and different social media networks, and show trust in digital information [45,46]. Therefore, it is vital to understand online health information-seeking behaviours and DHL among university students in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”