Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents (HELMA): Development and Psychometric Properties.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Health literacy refers to personal competencies for the access to, understanding of, appraisal of and application of health information in order to make sound decisions in everyday life. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of an instrument for the measurement of health literacy among adolescents (the Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents-HELMA).

Methods

This study was made up of two phases, qualitative and quantitative, which were carried out in 2012-2014 in Tehran, Iran. In the qualitative part of the study, in-depth interviews with 67 adolescents aged 15-18 were carried out in 4 high schools to generate the initial item pool for the survey. The content validity of the items was then assessed by an expert panel review (

SUBMITTER: Ghanbari S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4755574 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature