title: A New Functional Health Literacy Scale for Japanese Young Adults Based on Item Response Theory.
abstract: Health literacy predicts health outcomes. Despite concerns surrounding the health of Japanese young adults, to date there has been no objective assessment of health literacy in this population. This study aimed to develop a Functional Health Literacy Scale for Young Adults (funHLS-YA) based on item response theory. Each item in the scale requires participants to choose the most relevant term from 3 choices in relation to a target item, thus assessing objective rather than perceived health literacy. The 20-item scale was administered to 1816 university students and 1751 responded. Cronbach's α coefficient was .73. Difficulty and discrimination parameters of each item were estimated, resulting in the exclusion of 1 item. Some items showed different difficulty parameters for male and female participants, reflecting that some aspects of health literacy may differ by gender. The current 19-item version of funHLS-YA can reliably assess the objective health literacy of Japanese young adults.
authors.affiliation: 1 Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Nisshin, Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsubakita
authors.affiliation: 1 Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Nisshin, Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kawazoe
authors.affiliation: 2 Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Eri
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kasano
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: gender difference in health literacy; health literacy assessment; health literacy in Japanese young adults; item response theory; objective health literacy scale