Health literacy: psychometric behaviour of the HLS-EU-Q16 questionnaire

Abstract

Objective: To describe the psychometric properties and the level of understanding of the health literacy questionnaire HLS-EU-Q16 in Spanish, implemented in the Health Survey of the Valencian Region (Spain) of 2016. Method: Descriptive cross-sectional study to describe understanding, reliability, structure and internal consistency of the questionnaire on a sample of 5485 subjects, aged 15 or over, who participated in the survey. Results: The percentages of understanding without much difficulty were high. Reliability was high (intraclass correlation coefficient:.923; kappa:.814). The factorial analysis suggested a unifactorial structure (79.1% of variability explained by the common factor), with high factorial loads. The consistency was high (Cronbach's alpha: 0.982). Conclusions: The HLS-EU-Q16 in Spanish is a short, adequate and valid instrument to measure the level of health literacy in the population.