Laura M. Curtis|William Revelle|Katherine Waite|Elizabeth A. Wilson|David Condon|Elizabeth A. Bojarski|Denise C. Park|David W. Baker|Michael S. Wolf
Development and Validation of the Comprehensive Health Activities Scale: A New Approach to Health Literacy Measurement
Northwestern University
current health literacy measures criticized solely measuring reading numeracy skills broader set skills necessary making informed health decisions especially information often conveyed verbally multimedia video authors devised 9 health tasks corresponding 190item assessment comprehensively measure health literacy skills sample 826 participants ages 55 74 years recruited academic general internal medicine practice three federally qualified health centers chicago illinois completed assessment items reduced using hierarchical factor analysis item response theory resulting 45item comprehensive health activities scale 45 items loaded 1 general latent trait resulting scale demonstrated high reliability strong construct validity using measures health literacy global cognitive functioning predictive validity comprehensive health activities scale using selfreported general physical mental health status comparable better widely used measures health literacy depending outcome despite comprehensively measuring health literacy skills items comprehensive health activities scale supported 1 primary construct similar psychometric properties current measures may adequate depending purpose assessment