TY - JOUR
T1 - Validation of three Arabic health literacy assessment tools in Lebanon
AU - Fadda, Marta
AU - Kanj, Mayada
AU - Kabakian-Khasholian, Tamar
AU - Johannes Schulz, Peter
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by internal funding of the Institute of Communication and Health, which extensively relies on financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - Health literacy is an important predictor of health status, health behaviours, and other health outcomes. However, research on health literacy in the Arab world is scarce and no health literacy tool has been validated to test the health literacy level of the Lebanese population so far. The aim of this study was to validate Arabic translations of three commonly used health literacy assessment tools, the S-TOFHLA, the REALM-R, and the Brief Health Literacy Screening items. The tools were linguistically and culturally adapted to the Lebanese context, and 250 face-to-face interviews were conducted in an outpatient clinic in Beirut, Lebanon, between April and June 2015. The General Self-Efficacy Scale and socio-demographic questions such as gender, age, origin, education and chronic condition were included to assess predictive validity. Reliability of the instruments was found to be low to high (Cronbach's α =0.94 for the S-TOFHLA, Cronbach's α = 0.46 for the REALM-R). Younger and highly educated participants scored higher on the S-TOFHLA. The Brief Health Literacy Screening items were significantly correlated with age, education, self-efficacy and the S-TOFHLA, reinforcing the convergent and predictive validity of the two tools. Results indicate that the S-TOFHLA and the three screening questions are a valuable tool to measure health literacy in Lebanon and, allowing for minimal adaptations according to each country's healthcare system, in the entire Arabic-speaking area.
AB - Health literacy is an important predictor of health status, health behaviours, and other health outcomes. However, research on health literacy in the Arab world is scarce and no health literacy tool has been validated to test the health literacy level of the Lebanese population so far. The aim of this study was to validate Arabic translations of three commonly used health literacy assessment tools, the S-TOFHLA, the REALM-R, and the Brief Health Literacy Screening items. The tools were linguistically and culturally adapted to the Lebanese context, and 250 face-to-face interviews were conducted in an outpatient clinic in Beirut, Lebanon, between April and June 2015. The General Self-Efficacy Scale and socio-demographic questions such as gender, age, origin, education and chronic condition were included to assess predictive validity. Reliability of the instruments was found to be low to high (Cronbach's α =0.94 for the S-TOFHLA, Cronbach's α = 0.46 for the REALM-R). Younger and highly educated participants scored higher on the S-TOFHLA. The Brief Health Literacy Screening items were significantly correlated with age, education, self-efficacy and the S-TOFHLA, reinforcing the convergent and predictive validity of the two tools. Results indicate that the S-TOFHLA and the three screening questions are a valuable tool to measure health literacy in Lebanon and, allowing for minimal adaptations according to each country's healthcare system, in the entire Arabic-speaking area.
KW - Arabic
KW - REALM-R
KW - S-TOFHLA
KW - brief health literacy screening items
KW - health literacy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041785811&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/heapro/daw079
DO - 10.1093/heapro/daw079
M3 - Article
C2 - 27651348
AN - SCOPUS:85041785811
SN - 0957-4824
VL - 33
SP - 261
EP - 267
JO - Health Promotion International
JF - Health Promotion International
IS - 2
ER -
