Adaptation of Extended eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS-E) in Turkish: validity and reliability analysis

The aim of the study is to adapt the "Extended eHealth Literacy Scale" (eHEALS-E) into Turkish, a critical component of health promotion activities, and to evaluate the scale's validity and reliability. This methodological study was conducted as an online survey between December 2-9, 2024, with 395 participants. The study included three main components: demographic information, the eHEALS-E, and the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47). Psychometric properties were assessed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for construct validity, correlation analysis with HLS-EU-Q47 for convergent validity and known-groups comparisons. Reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency, and test-retest reliability was assessed with a subset of participants after seven weeks. After removing problematic items, the Turkish version of eHEALS-E demonstrated strong psychometric properties. The final 20-item scale exhibited high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.896 and McDonald's ω = 0.900) and strong test-retest reliability (<i>r</i> = 0.794, <i>p</i> < .001). EFA revealed a four-factor structure explaining 58.9% of the total variance. The scale showed good convergent validity, with a significant correlation with HLS-EU-Q47 (<i>r</i> = 0.514, <i>p</i> < .001). This tool can serve as a valuable resource for healthcare professionals and researchers in assessing eHealth literacy levels and designing targeted interventions for Turkish-speaking populations.