Testing health literacy skills in older Korean adults.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable screening test for limited health literacy for older Korean adults.


METHODS
A pool of 102 items was generated based on empirical referents, which, after expert review, field study, and content validity, was reduced to 29 items with three subscales. Construct validity and reliability were established using a convenience sample of 411 community dwelling elderly participants and exploratory factor analysis, and Cronbach's alpha was employed. Rasch analysis was also performed to assess the unidimensionality of the construct and item adequacy.


RESULTS
Rasch analysis showed that the scale was unidimensional and the majority of the items demonstrated good fit. The final instrument, the Korean Health Literacy Scale (KHLS), is a 24-item questionnaire containing short passages, pictures, and graphs with multiple-choice answer format, with an internal consistency of .891. There are 13 comprehension and numeracy questions and 11 questions about health-related terms; the test requires 15-20min for administration.


CONCLUSIONS
KHLS is culturally suitable as a screening test for limited literacy for older Korean adults in the community.


CONCLUSIONS
Korean investigators now have a validated health literacy tool for research with elderly participants.
Lee
Tae Wha
TW
Department of Nursing Environments & Systems, Nursing Policy Research Institute, College of Nursing, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. twlee5@yuhs.ac
Kang
Soo Jin
SJ
Lee
Han Joo
HJ
Hyun
Soo In
SI
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011932:Reading; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires