Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of short‐form Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of short-form Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents. BACKGROUND: Assessing health literacy is vital to design health education programme; however, there are no measurement tools exist for use specifically in Chinese adolescents. DESIGN: A non-experimental design was used to test the psychometric properties of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents. METHODS: The short-form Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents was translated and back translated into a Chinese language version. Thirty high school students were recruited to validate the scenario of Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents. Based on the multiple-stage stratified random sampling method, 300 high school students from four counties in Taiwan were invited to participate in this study to evaluate the psychometric properties of Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents. RESULTS: The Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents had good internal consistency reliability and excellent test-retest reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a one-factor solution. CONCLUSION: Contrary to the original version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents, the findings revealed that the 36-item, one-factor model for the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adolescents is the best-fit model. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This is a suitable instrument to assess health literacy levels in Chinese adolescents before health education programmes can be appropriately planned, implemented and evaluated.