TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Up to now, the under-13s have received little attention in research on health literacy (HL). Although some tools assess children’s HL, no validated tool is available that
assesses self-reported HL in a systematic and comparable way. The HLS-EU
questionnaire is a valid and reliable measure of adolescents’ and adults’ self-reported
HL, but has never been adapted for use with children. However, it would be worth
adapting for younger age groups so that self-reported HL could be assessed
continuously.


Objective: To quantitatively test an adapted scale based on the HLS-EU-Q developed
for German-speaking 9- to 10-year-olds.


Methods: An adapted 26-item HLS-EU-Q scale was given in a paper-and-pencil survey
to 907 fourth-grade students in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The psychometric
properties of the scale were investigated with item analysis and factor analyses, and
both concurrent and discriminant validity were assessed.


Key Results: Of the 26 tested items, 9 were discarded due to poor performance in
terms of missing values, item difficulty, and dimensionality. This left a 15-item scale
with a high internal consistency (α = .791) that takes only a short time to administer.
The scale had a low correlation with functional health literacy (r = .107, p < .001), and a
moderate correlation with indicators of self-efficacy (ρ = .280–.306, p < .001). The latter
indicates adequate discriminant validity; whereas the former points to a need to further
investigate concurrent validity.


Conclusions: This is the first study in applying an age-adapted version of the HLS-EUQ
to children. Statistical analyses indicated the successful development of a promising
instrument, but further research is needed on its dimensionality and validity. This study
contributes significantly to the comparative assessment of HL across the life course by
providing a promising measurement tool for children aged 9 to 10.
DA  - 2020
DO  - 10.3928/24748307-20200428-01
LA  - eng
IS  - 3
M2  - e144
PY  - 2020
SP  - e144-e159
T2  - Health Literacy Research and Practice
TI  - Adapting the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire for Fourth-Grade Students in Germany: Validation and Psychometric Analysis
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29370837
Y2  - 2024-12-25T17:28:37
ER  -