Improving the utility of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire: a computerized adaptive test for patients with stroke

Abstract

Purpose

Health literacy among patients is crucial for effective stroke management. The European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire is a theory-based measure that comprehensively captures 12 domains of health literacy. We aimed to develop a computerized adaptive test of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire to efficiently assess health literacy among patients with stroke.

Materials and methods

The European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire data of 311 patients and item parameters were retrieved from a Rasch validation study. Real data simulations were performed to develop a computerized adaptive test of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire and explore its efficiency and reliability.

Results

The computerized adaptive test of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire displayed suitable reliability in all 12 domains (0.72–0.84) with a mean test length of 17 items (36.2% of the 47-item European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire).

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that the computerized adaptive test of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire, which assesses 12 domains of health literacy among patients with stroke in a timely and precise fashion, is efficient and reliable.

Implications for rehabilitation

• The computerized adaptive test of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire assesses the subjective fit of personal health literacy competencies to environmental demands, providing insight into patient strengths and weaknesses when dealing with health tasks and interacting with health systems.

• The computerized adaptive test of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire assesses the 12 domains of health literacy among patients with stroke in a timely and precise manner.

• Our study has demonstrated the utility of the computerized adaptive test of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire in reducing the assessment burden of patients in clinical practice.

• Developing of the computerized adaptive test of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire provided findings that may benefit researchers and clinicians interested in developing efficient outcome measures.

Keywords:

• Health literacy
• stroke
• computerized adaptive test
• outcome assessment
• psychometrics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Science Council (NSC-102-2314-B-038-007-MY3), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST-105-2314-B-038-012; MOST-106-2314-B-038-042), Chi Mei Medical Center (106CM-TMU-01), and Taipei Medical University Hospital (109TMUH-H-01). These funding resources had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.