Psychometric Properties of the Mobile Health Literacy Scale in the Workers of an Automotive Metal Sheet Factory in Shahrekord, Iran

BACKGROUND: Mobile health (mHealth) literacy refers to the ability to use mobile devices to search, find, understand, evaluate, and use health information to identify or solve a health problem. Health literacy skills are important for improving health information interventions and it will not be possible to investigate this skill unless a valid and reliable tool is developed. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the mHealth Literacy Scale in the workers of an automotive metal sheet factory in Shahrekord, Iran. METHODS: After forward and backward translation of the scale and ensuring the accuracy of the translation, qualitative face validity was examined by an expert panel and quantitative face validity by 10 workers using the item impact score. Content validity index (CVI) and content validity ratio were investigated by seven experts on health education. To investigate construct validity, the scale was completed by 200 workers. One-factor and two-factor structures of the measure were studied using confirmatory factor analysis and the reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. KEY RESULTS: The CVI for each of the three parameter (relevance, clarity, simplicity) was rated 0.75 to 1 for each item. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the one-factor model had a better fit to the data than the two-factor model [goodness of fit index = 0.985(>0.90), comparative fit index = 0.999 (>0.90), Tucker-Lewis index = 0.996 (>0.90), normed fit index = 0.994(>0.90), root mean square error of approximation = 0.038(< 0.08)]. Furthermore, the scale had an acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.964). CONCLUSION: The Persian version of mHealth Literacy Scale has satisfactory reliability and validity and could be used as an effective tool to evaluate mHealth literacy among Iranian workers. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2022;6(4):e257–e261.] PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 workers of an automotive metal sheet factory in southwest Iran to investigate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the mHealth Literacy Scale. The results demonstrated that one-factor structure was more appropriate for evaluating mHealth literacy among Iranian workers.