eHealth Literacy Scale

eHEALS

health sciencespsychologyFree for research use

An 8-item measure of perceived ability to find, evaluate, and use online health information.

Items

Response format

5-point Likert scale

Version

Original 8-item eHEALS

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Perceived eHealth literacy was measured with the 8-item eHEALS (Norman & Skinner, 2006), which showed good internal consistency in the original youth sample (α = .88).

Reliability & validation

notes

The original principal-components analysis yielded one factor explaining 56% of variance.

Validation population

Canadian adolescents and young adults aged 13-21 (Norman & Skinner, 2006)

Test–retest

0.40-0.68 across follow-ups to 6 months

Cronbach's α

0.88

Response anchors

Strongly disagree · Disagree · Undecided · Agree · Strongly agree

Known limitations

eHEALS measures perceived, not demonstrated, digital-health skill and was developed before today's mobile, social, and AI-mediated information environment. The original sample was predominantly adolescent.

Original citation

Norman, C. D., Skinner, H. A. (2006). eHEALS: The eHealth Literacy Scale. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(4), e27.

https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8.4.e27

Questions researchers ask

What does the eHEALS measure?

An 8-item measure of perceived ability to find, evaluate, and use online health information.

How many items does the eHEALS have?

The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) has 8 items.

Is the eHEALS free to use?

The eHEALS is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the eHEALS reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.88, test–retest reliability of 0.40-0.68 across follow-ups to 6 months. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the eHEALS, and how do I cite it?

Norman, C. D., Skinner, H. A. (2006). eHEALS: The eHealth Literacy Scale. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(4), e27. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8.4.e27

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Library entry verified August 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.