Abstract
Abstract Background Childhood is characterized by a wide array of cognitive and social-emotional developments, which facilitate the overall learning capacities. Therefore, children should be seen as a target group for programs and interventions concerning health literacy. An appropriate measurement tool for taping children's health literacy is still needed since the quality of the current tools does not reach satisfying levels and/or these tools can only be applied in clinical settings. This study aimed to develop an age-appropriate measurement tool to fill this gap. Methods The authors used four cognitive processes (access, understand, appraise and apply) and five topics (physical activity, nutrition, media, psycho-social health, and health care) to develop the items. These items were then discussed with primary school teachers and health intervention experts. Developmental characteristics of the middle childhood guided and shaped the decisions on the test and item formats. During the pilot testing, 155 pupils aged 8 to 10 years fillet out the 60 items of the piloting-version of the QUIGK-K. Results After the pilot testing, a reduction to 40 items based on the data was made. The final QUIGK-K shows (very) good quality with regards to reliability and validity. Conclusions The application of the QUIGK-K takes 40 minutes and can be conducted in a group context. The test yields five scores representing the overall level of health literacy and detailed information on the four cognitive processes involved. Therefore, the QUIGK-K fills in the gap of the missing age-appropriate measurement tool for health literacy. Key messages An age-appropriate measurement tool for health literacy is now available for children aged 8-10 years which allows profile analyses via five test scores. The (very) satisfying test quality may be attributed to the design as a performance test and the active integration of the developmental characteristics of the target group.
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