Psychometric testing of the Turkish version of the Health Literacy for School-Aged Children Scale

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Health Literacy for School-Aged Children (HLSAC-T) scale. This study was a cross-sectional and methodological design. The sample consisted of 563 sixth and ninth grade students in Izmir, Turkey. Data were collected with the socio-demographic characteristics questionnaire, HLSAC-T, and Turkish version of the Adolescent Lifestyle Profile. Cronbach's α for the scale was .77 and item-total correlations were between .49 and .61 ( p < .001). The model fit indices were determined to be the root mean square error of approximation at .035, the goodness of fit index at .99, and the comparative fit index at .99. The concordance validity and convergent validity were supported and the discriminant validity suggested that the scale successfully discriminated students who cared about healthy lifestyle from the students who did not. The HLSAC-T showed an adequate reliability and validity for determining the subjective health literacy of Turkish school-aged children. The results showed promise that the scale could be translated into other languages.

Predicting the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors of Turkish Adolescents Based on their Health Literacy and Self-Efficacy Levels

“…The factor loads ranged between 0.30 and 0.55. These results indicate that the scale is a valid and reliable tool for Turkish studies (Haney, 2018).…”

“…The alpha value of the original scale was 0.93, and the alpha values of the subscales ranged from 0.69 to 0.77 (Paakkari et al, 2016). The validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the scale were examined by Haney (2018). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.77; the Turkish version of the scale had an RMSEA value below 0.08, and the fit indices were above 0.90.…”

Instruments to Measure Health Literacy among Children: A Scoping Review

“…Six selected studies were recently published, from 2016 to 2019. The studies were conducted in several countries such as Iran, Turkey, Finland, China, Lithuania [13][14][15][16][17][18] . Characteristics of the study is shown in Table 1.…”

“…The respondents in the studies ranged from 11 to 18 years, and most were students of various selected schools. In general, the studies aimed to develop and evaluate the instrument related to health literacy in children 14,16,17 . Other studies compared health literacy in children who engaged in certain physical activities such as sports 15 .…”

“…However, in the Lithuanian version, the study was not completed with any description of the instrument's reliability and validity. The ten items are assessed on a four-point Likert-type scale [13][14][15]18 . The original HLSAC is assumed to be easy to administer, score, and interpret.…”