Online Health Information Literacy Scale Test

For readers who want to understand how they navigate online health information, this questionnaire offers a focused self-report profile of online health-information habits. The Online Health Information Literacy Scale Test connects everyday internet use with confidence in finding, judging, and applying health-related material. As a digital health literacy assessment, it can help identify areas to reflect on when online information influences questions, choices, or conversations with professionals.

What This Assessment Explores

The result describes perceived ability to recognize useful health resources, locate them, answer personal questions, apply what is found, and judge source quality. It also captures confidence when online information informs medical decisions. This online health literacy test reflects perceived knowledge and self-efficacy rather than demonstrated health-information performance.

People who use the internet for health learning or decision support may find the profile useful. Its displayed scale is:

• Online Health Information Literacy (8-40) shows perceived knowledge and confidence in finding, understanding, evaluating, and using online health information.
• Low (8-16) indicates a lower reported level on the overall profile.
• Moderate (17-31) indicates an intermediate reported level.
• High (32-40) indicates a higher reported level.

Read the overall result as a snapshot of current confidence and perceived ability, showing how prepared you feel to move from finding information to judging and applying it.

Methodology and Scientific Basis

Each item is a self-report statement answered through five response positions moving from disagreement or uncertainty toward agreement. The items address finding resources, using information, evaluating quality, and confidence in health-related decisions. These responses produce one overall score in this health information literacy questionnaire rather than separate domain scores.

The closest published reference is eHEALS (Norman and Skinner, 2006), an eight-item measure of perceived knowledge, comfort, and skill in finding, evaluating, and applying electronic health information. The eight items closely parallel the eHEALS instrument developed by Norman and Skinner, although findings from that study do not establish validity or norms for this online version. The related framework combines traditional, health, information, scientific, media, and computer literacies and draws on social-cognitive and self-efficacy perspectives, recognizing that context affects how skills are used.

The original study reported strong internal consistency and a single-factor result in a youth sample, but called for broader research. The displayed bands are version-specific labels. Self-report scores may shift with current concerns, recent online experiences, familiarity with health terminology, and willingness to rate oneself confidently.