extended · article · 2018

Establishing the HLS-Q12 short version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire: latent trait analyses applying Rasch modelling and confirmatory factor analysis

Hanne Søberg Finbråten; Bodil Wilde‐Larsson; Gun Nordström; Kjell Sverre Pettersen; Anne Trollvik; Øystein Guttersrud

BACKGROUND: The European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) is widely used in assessing health literacy (HL). There has been some controversy whether the comprehensive HLS-EU-Q47 data, reflecting a conceptual model of four cognitive domains across three health domains (i.e. 12 subscales), fit unidimensional Rasch models. Still, the HLS-EU-Q47 raw score is commonly interpreted as a sufficient statistic. Combining Rasch modelling and confirmatory factor analysis, we reduced the 47 item scale to a parsimonious 12 item scale that meets the assumptions and requirements of objective measurement while offering a clinically feasible HL screening tool. This paper aims at (1) evaluating the psychometric properties of the HLS-EU-Q47 and associated short versions in a large Norwegian sample, and (2) establishing a short version (HLS-Q12) with sufficient psychometric properties. METHOD...