Allan D. Wu|Deborah Begoray|Marjorie MacDonald|Joan Higgins|James Frankish|Becky Kwan|Whitney Fung|Irving Rootman
Developing and evaluating a relevant and feasible instrument for measuring health literacy of Canadian high school students
University of British Columbia|University of Victoria|University of Victoria|University of Victoria|University of British Columbia|University of British Columbia|University of British Columbia|University of Victoria
health literacy come play critical role health education promotion yet poorly understood adolescents measurement tools exist standardized instruments measure health literacy adults assume derivative general literacy paper reports development earlystage validation health literacy tool high school students measured skills understand evaluate health information systematic process used develop score validate items questionnaire data collected 275 primarily 10th grade students three secondary schools vancouver canada reflected variation demographic profile fortyeight percent male 691 spoke language english bivariate correlations background variables domain overall health literacy scores calculated regression model developed using 15 explanatory variables r2 value 0567 key findings lower scores achieved males students speaking second language english immigrated canada later age skipped school often unlike general literacy family factors mothers education family affluence played significant roles two factors failed predict health literacy schoolaged sample significant contributions work include creation instrument measuring adolescent health literacy emphasizing distinction health literacy general literacy