Translation and validation of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) into the Slovenian language

Japelj, Nuša (author), Horvat, Nejc (author)

Background The European Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) is a self-assessment tool for standardised measurement of health literacy. Aim To translate HLS-EU-Q47 into the Slovenian language and to investigate its reliability and validity in Slovenia. Method HLS-EU-Q47 was translated into Slovenian, back-translated, and subjected to a pilot test. The accepted Slovenian version of the questionnaire was mailed to 2500 randomly selected adult residents of the Republic of Slovenia. Reliability was examined using Cronbach’s alpha for the 1-, 3-, 4-, and 12-factor models addressing health literacy, three main health contexts, four health information processing competencies, and 12 combinations, respectively. Validity was explored with confirmatory factor analysis, univariate analysis, and multiple linear regression. Results A total of 517 responses were collected (21% response rate). The highest Cronbach’s alpha was obtained for the 1-factor model (0.950), followed by the 3-, 4-, and 12-factor models. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the 12-factor model provided the most valid results (CFI 0.812; RMSEA 0.067, CI 0.065 to 0.070), followed by the 3-, 4-, and 1-factor models. In the multiple regression model, only the association between self-assessment of health and the health literacy index was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Conclusion The Slovenian version of HLS-EU-Q47 is a reliable instrument for measuring health literacy. All models of the questionnaire showed reasonable model fit, but none fully satisfied all validity criteria. Respondents differentiated better between the three main health contexts (health care, disease prevention, and health promotion) than the four health information processing competencies (access, understand, appraise, and apply).

• Language: English
• Keywords: health literacy, questionnaire, reliability, translation, validity, vaccination, COVID-19
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FFA - Faculty of Pharmacy
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 1387–1395
• Numbering: Vol. 45, iss. 6
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-152570
• UDC: 614.2 (049.5)
• ISSN on article: 2210-7711
• DOI: 10.1007/s11096-023-01610-z
• COBISS.SI-ID: 156980483
• Publication date in RUL: 29.11.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of clinical pharmacy
• Publisher: Springer Nature, European Society of Clinical Pharmacy
• ISSN: 2210-7711
• COBISS.SI-ID: 518906393

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: zdravstvena pismenost, vprašalniki, zanesljivost, prevod, veljavnost, javno zdravstvo

Projects

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Funding programme: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Pharmacy