TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring health literacy in populations
T2 - Illuminating the design and development process of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q)
AU - Sørensen, Kristine
AU - Van Den Broucke, Stephan
AU - Pelikan, Jürgen M.
AU - Fullam, James
AU - Doyle, Gerardine
AU - Slonska, Zofia
AU - Kondilis, Barbara
AU - Stoffels, Vivian
AU - Osborne, Richard H.
AU - Brand, Helmut
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank all partners in the HLS-EU Consortium for contributing to the development of the HLS-EU-Q. The HLS-EU Consortium includes: Maastricht University, the Netherlands: Helmut Brand, Stephan Van den Broucke, Kristine Sorensen; National School of Public Health, Greece: Demosthenes Agrafiodis, Elizabeth Ioannidis, Barbara Kondilis (Hellenic American University). University College Dublin, National University of Ireland: Gerardine Doyle, James Fullam; Kenneth Cafferkey; Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Health Promotion Research: Jürgen M. Pelikan, Florian Röthlin; The Cardinal Wyszyński Institute of Cardiology, Warsaw, Poland: Zofia Slonska; University of Murcia, Spain: Maria Falcon; Medical University, Sofia, Bulgaria: Kancho Tchamov and Alex Zhekov; National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands: Mariële Droomers, Jantine Schuit, Iris van der Heide and Ellen Uiters; and NRW Centre for Health, Germany: Monika Mensing and Gudula Ward. The authors also wish to acknowledge the contribution of all collaborating partners, especially the HLS-EU national advisory body on health literacy and Jennifer Lynch and her team at the National Adult Literacy Agency in Ireland; Diane Levin from Clalit Health Services in Israel; and Rachelle Buchbinder from Monash University in Australia to the development process of the HLS-EU-Q. The development of the HLS-EU-Q is a deliverable of the HLS-EU project, which is supported with grant 2007-113 from the European Commission’s Health Programme.
PY - 2013/10/14
Y1 - 2013/10/14
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1186/1471-2458-13-948
DO - 10.1186/1471-2458-13-948
M3 - Article
C2 - 24112855
AN - SCOPUS:84885145700
SN - 1471-2458
VL - 13
JO - BMC Public Health
JF - BMC Public Health
IS - 1
M1 - 948
ER -
