Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito 17-01-2184, Ecuador.
Department of Education Sciences, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Extremadura, 06006 Bajadoz, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 30;19(7):4092. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19074092.
Digital health literacy influences decision-making in health. There are no validated instruments to evaluate the digital literacy about COVID-19 in Spanish-speaking countries. This study aimed to validate the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI) about COVID-19 adapted to Spanish (COVID-DHLI-Spanish) in university students and to describe its most important results. A cross-sectional study was developed with 2318 university students from Spain, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador. Internal consistency was measured with Cronbach’s alpha and principal component analysis. Construct validity was analyzed using Spearman’s correlations and the Kruskal−Wallis test. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was good for the global scale (Cronbach’s alpha 0.69, 95% CI 0.67) as well as for its dimensions. A total of 51.1% (n = 946) of students had sufficient digital literacy, 40.1% (n = 742) had problematic digital literacy, and 8.8% (n = 162) had inadequate digital literacy. The DHLI was directly and significantly correlated with age, subjective social perception, sense of coherence, and well-being (p < 0.001). The average digital literacy was higher in men than in women, in students older than 22 years, and in those with greater satisfaction with online information (p < 0.001). The COVID-DHLI-Spanish is useful for measuring the digital literacy about COVID-19 in Spanish-speaking countries. This study suggests gaps by gender and socioeconomic perception.
数字健康素养会影响健康决策。目前还没有经过验证的工具可以评估西班牙语国家的民众对新冠的数字素养。本研究旨在验证适用于西班牙语国家（COVID-DHLI-Spanish）大学生的新冠数字健康素养量表（DHLI），并描述其最重要的结果。这是一项横断面研究，共有来自西班牙、波多黎各和厄瓜多尔的 2318 名大学生参与。采用克朗巴赫α系数和主成分分析法评估内部一致性。采用斯皮尔曼相关系数和克鲁斯卡尔-沃利斯检验分析结构效度。问卷的整体信度良好（克朗巴赫α 0.69，95%置信区间 0.67），各维度的信度也良好。共有 51.1%（n=946）的学生具有足够的数字素养，40.1%（n=742）的学生具有有问题的数字素养，8.8%（n=162）的学生具有不足的数字素养。DHLI 与年龄、主观社会感知、心理一致感和幸福感呈直接显著相关（p<0.001）。男性的平均数字素养高于女性，22 岁以上的学生和对在线信息满意度更高的学生的平均数字素养更高（p<0.001）。COVID-DHLI-Spanish 可用于测量西班牙语国家民众对新冠的数字素养。本研究提示存在性别和社会经济感知方面的差距。
