The reliabililty and consistency of health literacy scale for chronic patients

Objective To explore the reliabililty and consistency of a health literacy scale for chronic patients.Methods We translated and revised the the Health Literacy Management Scale(HeLMS) which was established by professor Jordan in Melbourne University of Australia.Items that not conform to Chinese custom were revised,thus 28 items from the 29 original scale item was retained.Multistage stratified random sample was used to choose subjects in some district in Shanghai.The total subject number was 430.Internal consistency,test-retest reliability,content and construct validities were surveyed.Results The total Cronbach coefficient was 0.894,the dimension Cronbach coefficient was between 0.857-0.940.Test-retest reliability was 0.683,and criterion validity was 0.240.Kaisex-Meyer-Olkin(KMO) statistic in factor analysis was 0.887 and four common factors predicted 68.25% of the total variance.Conclusions The health literacy scale for chronic disease patients has a relatively good reliabililty and consistency.