Screening everyday health information literacy among four populations.

Background: People face varying obstacles when interacting with health information in their everyday lives.

Objectives: This study aims to examine the applicability of a multidimensional Everyday Health Information Literacy (EHIL) screening tool in detecting people with challenges in accessing, understanding, evaluating and using health information in everyday situations.

Methods: Previously collected EHIL screening tool data from Finnish upper secondary school students (n = 217), Finnish young men (n = 1450), Finnish adults with an increased risk for metabolic syndrome (n = 559) and Namibian university students (n = 271) were reanalysed to examine the factorial structure of the tool and to compare the groups.