Abstract
As health literacy (HL) is hypothesized to develop throughout life, enhancement during childhood will improve HL and health during life. There are few valid, age-appropriate tools to assess children’s HL. The German-language European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire Adapted for Children (HLS-Child-Q15-DE) is a self-report questionnaire adapted from the adult European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire. This study aims to translate the HLS-Child-Q15 to Dutch and explore the sample’s HL distribution. The HLS-Child-Q15-DE was translated following WHO guidelines and administered digitally to 209 Dutch schoolchildren (eight-to-eleven-year-olds). Its psychometric properties were assessed and the sample’s HL distribution was explored by demographic characteristics. The HLS-Child-Q15-NL had high internal consistency (α = 0.860) and moderate to strong item-total correlations (mean = 0.499). For 6 of the 15 items, >10% of participants answered “do not know”, indicating comprehension problems. Higher HL scores were observed for ten-to-eleven-year-olds (compared with eight-to-nine-year-olds; p = 0.021) and fourth-grade students (compared with third-grade; p = 0.019). This supports the idea that HL evolves throughout life and the importance of schools in this process. With the HLS-Child-Q15-NL, a Dutch measurement instrument of children’s HL is available, although it needs further tailoring to the target group. More research is needed to decrease comprehension problems and to investigate retest reliability and construct validity.
Highlights
Introduction iationsHealth literacy (HL) is defined as “people’s motivation, knowledge and competences to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information to make judgements and take decisions in everyday life concerning healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life throughout life” [1]
Six participants were excluded from analyses due to having selected “do not know” ≥14 times, resulting in 209 participants included in the present study
Adult guidance might be beneficial for successful administration, excessive adult interference should be avoided to minimize influencing children’s answers
Summary
Health literacy (HL) is defined as “people’s motivation, knowledge and competences to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information to make judgements and take decisions in everyday life concerning healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life throughout life” [1]. As HL is hypothesized to be a skill that develops throughout life, enhancing it at a young age (when various prerequisite competencies for HL evolve) will likely result in improved HL and health outcomes later in life [4,5,6]. Little knowledge is available on children’s HL; partly due to the fact that until recently, children and adolescents generally have been overlooked in health research [7].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International journal of environmental research and public health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
