Measuring health literacy in populations: illuminating the design and development process of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q)

BMC Public Health

Helmut Brand⁵  Richard H Osborne⁷  Vivian Stoffels⁵  Barbara Kondilis⁴  Zofia Slonska²  Gerardine Doyle¹  James Fullam⁸  Jürgen M Pelikan⁶  Stephan Van den Broucke³  Kristine Sørensen⁵ 

[1] School of Business, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland;The Cardinal Wyszyński Institute of Cardiology, Warsaw, Poland;Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Louvain, Leuven, Belgium;Hellenic American Education Center, Athens, Greece;Department of International Health, CAPHRI, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200, Maastricht, MD, the Netherlands;Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Health Promotion Research, Vienna, Austria;Public Health Innovation, Deakin Population Health Strategic Research Centre, Deakin University, VIC 3125, Melbourne, Australia;School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science and School of Business, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

关键词: Population;    Tool;    Measurement;    Survey;    Health literacy;   

Others  :  1161674
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-13-948

 received in 2012-12-21, accepted in 2013-09-26,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Several measurement tools have been developed to measure health literacy. The tools vary in their approach and design, but few have focused on comprehensive health literacy in populations. This paper describes the design and development of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q), an innovative, comprehensive tool to measure health literacy in populations.

Methods

Based on a conceptual model and definition, the process involved item development, pre-testing, field-testing, external consultation, plain language check, and translation from English to Bulgarian, Dutch, German, Greek, Polish, and Spanish.

Results

The development process resulted in the HLS-EU-Q, which entailed two sections, a core health literacy section and a section on determinants and outcomes associated to health literacy. The health literacy section included 47 items addressing self-reported difficulties in accessing, understanding, appraising and applying information in tasks concerning decisions making in healthcare, disease prevention, and health promotion. The second section included items related to, health behaviour, health status, health service use, community participation, socio-demographic and socio-economic factors.

Conclusions

By illuminating the detailed steps in the design and development process of the HLS-EU-Q, it is the aim to provide a deeper understanding of its purpose, its capability and its limitations for others using the tool. By stimulating a wide application it is the vision that HLS-EU-Q will be validated in more countries to enhance the understanding of health literacy in different populations.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Sørensen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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