Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire

Abstract

Health literacy is a public health priority which refers to individual's knowledge, motivation and competence to access, understand, appraise and apply health information to prevent disease and promote health in daily life. This study aimed to adapt European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) into Turkish and to investigate its psychometric properties. The questionnaire was translated into Turkish by using both group translation and expert opinion methods. Forward translation-back translation method was used for language validity and the final Turkish version (HLS-TR) was formed. HLS-EU-Q47 and Health Awareness Scale (HAS) were administered to 505 respondents. The scale reliability was examined using Crohnbach's alpha coefficient and the construct validity was assessed by principal axis factoring procedure. The convergent validity was obtained by Pearson correlation coefficients between HLS-TR and HAS scores and discriminant validity was examined comparing the scores of participants who were stratified according to ages, educational status, gender, general health status and social status. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was 0.95. Principal axis factoring extracted nine factors which eigenvalues were >1 and explained 50.01% of total variance. Factor matrix displayed that all items gave greater load in factor 1, showing that health literacy measured with one factor. Positive and significant correlation was found between HLS-TR and HAS. Significant relations were found between HLS-TR scores and selected determinants of health. This study revealed that the HLS-TR was a valid and reliable measuring instrument with appropriate psychometric characteristics.

Health literacy level and influencing factors in university students

“…Categories were created as 0–25, insufficient HL; >25 to ≤33, problematic‐limited HL; >33 to ≤42, sufficient HL; >42 to 50, perfect HL (HLS‐EU Consortium, ). A Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was .95 in validity and reliability of the Turkish version (Abacigil et al, ).…”

Determinants and Consequences of Limited Health Literacy in Polish Society

“…It revealed that limited health literacy was associated with poor health status, having more than one long-term illness and the higher use of health care services involving six or more consultations with doctors in the last 12 months [4]. Other studies, in which national versions of the HL questionnaire developed within the HLS-EU project were used, confirmed that low HL may be associated with people's poor self-assessment of health status [12,20], the prevalence of long-term illnesses [12], the higher utilisation of health care resources [14,21], and a lower level of physical activity [22][23][24].Although the scope of information which arises from the HLS-EU-Q47 is extensive, it appears that the size of the tool may result in reduced compliance of respondents, especially if the questionnaire is used as a part of a survey which is also focused on other issues. Therefore, a shortened but also validated, the 16-item version has been used in many surveys (HLS-EU-Q16) [5,12,[25][26][27][28][29].…”

“…It revealed that limited health literacy was associated with poor health status, having more than one long-term illness and the higher use of health care services involving six or more consultations with doctors in the last 12 months [4]. Other studies, in which national versions of the HL questionnaire developed within the HLS-EU project were used, confirmed that low HL may be associated with people's poor self-assessment of health status [12,20], the prevalence of long-term illnesses [12], the higher utilisation of health care resources [14,21], and a lower level of physical activity [22][23][24].…”

Health literacy level of Düzce University students: A cross-sectional study

“…[11,12] Uyarlaması, ASOY-TR) kullanılmıştır. [13] Kırk yedi maddeden oluşan HLS-EU ölçeği Av- [13] İstatistiksel Analiz [14] Çalışmamıza katılan öğrencilerin genel sağlık durumunu değerlendirmelerini istediğimizde öğrencilerin çoğunluğunun genel sağlık durumlarını 'iyi' ve 'çok iyi' olarak nitelendirdiklerini görmekteyiz. Açıksöz ve arkadaşlarının yaptığı çalışmada hemşirelik bölümü öğrencilerinin %74,2'sinin sağlığını "iyi" olarak algıladığı belirtilmiştir.…”