Validity and Reliability of the Korean Version of the Health-ITUES Scale for Usability Assessments of Mobile Health Technology (Preprint)
BACKGROUND Rigorous development of mobile technologies requires the use of validated instruments to evaluate the usability of these tools, which has become more relevant with the expansion of these technologies. Although various usability evaluation tools have been developed, there are relatively few simple evaluation instruments which have been validated across diseases and languages in mobile health information technology validated for use for multiple diseases. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to validate the Korean version of the Health Information Technology Usability Evaluation Scale (Korean Health-ITUES) and its applicability for different health conditions. METHODS To develop the Korean Health-ITUES, a validation process was composed of the following three steps: (1) customization of the Health-ITUES for menstrual symptoms, (2) translation to Korean Health-ITUES, and (3) reliability and validity examination. The translation process adhered to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for translation and back translation, expert review, and reconciliation. After developing the Korean Health-ITUES draft, five female nursing science majors who used the menstrual app participated in a pilot test and provided feedback on the content of the instrument. Following this, 244 women were recruited for validation testing. RESULTS The Korean Health-ITUES showed reliable internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.951; meanwhile, factor loadings of the 20 items in the 4 subscales ranged from 0.416 to 0.892. CONCLUSIONS The Health-ITUES demonstrated reliability and validity for use in assessing mHealth apps’ usability in young Korean women living with menstrual discomfort. Given the strong psychometric properties of this tool in Korean and English and across two different health conditions, the Health-ITUES is a strong tool for mHealth apps’ usability evaluation. The Health-ITUES is a valid instrument for the evaluation of mHealth technology, which are widely used by patients to self-manage their health and by providers to improve healthcare delivery.