Construct validity and reliability of the public health informatics competency scale for primary health care workers

Objective: Informatics competency is vital for public health care workers to meet the health-related needs of individuals with evidence-based practices through the field of science and engineering. The study was conducted to test the Turkish validity and reliability of the Public Health Informatics Competency for Primary Health Care Worker Scale. Methods: Two hundred thirty one health care workers participated in the study, which was conducted between 25 April and 25 November 2023. The validity and reliability of the scale have been studied by conducting exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency coefficients. Results: As a result of the conducted analyses, the factor loadings varied between 0.293 and 0.808, explaining 37.2% of the total variance. Findings revealed that fit index analyses were at an acceptable level. For the scale, the single-factor structure containing 42 items was confirmed. Study found evidence for internal consistency as 0.956. Conclusion: The results showed that the instrument with the uni-dimensional structure meets the validity and reliability criteria. The scale can help clarify the informatics competency of primary health care workers. Within this frame, it could be said that the scale could make significant contributions to the literature.