Translation and Assessment of Structural Validity and Internal Consistency of the Polish Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) in Health Professions Students.

Background and

Objectives

Assessing health literacy requires valid measurement tools that capture its multidimensional nature. The nine-scale Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) is globally used for this purpose. This study reports on the initial psychometric assessment of the Polish version of the HLQ. Materials and

Methods

The HLQ was translated using the developers' Translation Integrity Procedure and administered to 918 health professions students in a cross-sectional survey. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and reliability tests were conducted.

Results

One-factor CFAs generally supported the intended structure of the individual HLQ scales, although some variation in model fit was observed across scales. A full, restrictive nine-factor CFA supported the original nine-factor model, with good fit indices: χ2WLSMV (866 df) = 1752.08, p < 0.0001, CFI = 0.973, TLI = 0.970, SRMR = 0.045, RMSEA = 0.035. Factor loadings were generally acceptable (≥0.50), with only two items below the threshold. Internal consistency of scales was good to acceptable in all but one domain marginally lower than desired: "Appraisal of health information" (Cronbach's α = 0.69, composite reliability 0.68).

Conclusions

The findings provide initial evidence supporting structural validity and internal consistency of the Polish HLQ in this sample. Further testing in other Polish populations is recommended.