TY - JOUR

T1 - Validation of the COVID-19 Digital Health Literacy Instrument in the Italian Language

T2 - A Cross-Sectional Study of Italian University Students

AU - Lorini, Chiara

AU - Velasco, Veronica

AU - Bonaccorsi, Guglielmo

AU - Dadaczynski, Kevin

AU - Okan, Orkan

AU - Zanobini, Patrizio

AU - Vecchio, Luca P.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2022/5/20

Y1 - 2022/5/20

N2 - The Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic and the associated “infodemic” have shown the importance of surveillance and promotion of health literacy, especially for young adults such as university students who use digital media to a very high degree. This study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the Italian version of the COVID-19 adapted version of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI). This cross-sectional study is part of the COVID-19 University Students Survey involving 3985 students from two Italian universities. First, item analysis and internal consistency were assessed. Then, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) were performed comparing different models. The Italian DHLI showed good psychometric characteristics. The protecting privacy subscale was excluded, given the criticalities presented in the validation process. CFA confirmed the four-factor structure, also including a high-order factor. This result allows using the scale to measure a global level of digital health literacy and consider its levels separately for each construct component: searching the web for information, evaluating reliability, determining personal relevance, and adding self-generated content.

AB - The Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic and the associated “infodemic” have shown the importance of surveillance and promotion of health literacy, especially for young adults such as university students who use digital media to a very high degree. This study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the Italian version of the COVID-19 adapted version of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI). This cross-sectional study is part of the COVID-19 University Students Survey involving 3985 students from two Italian universities. First, item analysis and internal consistency were assessed. Then, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) were performed comparing different models. The Italian DHLI showed good psychometric characteristics. The protecting privacy subscale was excluded, given the criticalities presented in the validation process. CFA confirmed the four-factor structure, also including a high-order factor. This result allows using the scale to measure a global level of digital health literacy and consider its levels separately for each construct component: searching the web for information, evaluating reliability, determining personal relevance, and adding self-generated content.

KW - digital health literacy

KW - COVID-19

KW - university students

KW - infodemic

KW - measurement

KW - scale validation

KW - Health sciences

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/5a9079d6-a65c-329c-98ca-17f8a044aa22/

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130214877&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19106247

DO - 10.3390/ijerph19106247

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 35627789

VL - 19

JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

SN - 1661-7827

IS - 10

M1 - 6247

ER -