title: Development and validation of the health literacy assessment tool for older people in Taiwan: potential impacts of cultural differences.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To screen health literacy among urban elderly in Taiwan, who cannot be evaluated easily using the current measurement tools because of the "face", which meant someone felt embarrassed if he did not know how to do something.
  
  
  METHODS
  A literature review was performed to define a framework for developing the health literacy screening tool. Two hundred elderly were recruited to test the validity and reliability for pilot study. One thousand and eighty two elderly who came from quota sampling in Taipei City by administrative areas and gender were interviewed face-to-face to gather health literacy performance by the developed health literacy screening tool and the short-form Mandarin Health Literacy Scale (s-MHLS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  10-items of health literacy screening tool by self-perception were developed. The mean score of screening tool among analysis sample was 42.3 (0-50) and s-MHLS was 9.5 (0-11). Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.441 (p<0.0001) between these two measurements. Multiple regressions showed that, female, younger, higher education, living with family, has no primary caregiver, has few medical companionship, and higher score of health knowledge had better health literacy performance in both measurements.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This screening tool should be applied to screen health literacy of elderly came from baby boomer who usually have lower education levels than the general population in Chinese regions.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Nursing, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Min-Huey
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Aging and Health Research Center, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Liang-Kung
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Aging and Health Research Center, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Li-Ning
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: School of Gerontology Health Management, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Master Program in Long-term Care, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: mjchi@tmu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Mei-Ju
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Chi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D032882:Comprehension; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Health literacy; Screening tool; Taiwan; Urban elderly