Assessing Health Literacy for Adolescents: A Pilot Study

描述（由申请人提供）：健康素养在一个人充分理解健康信息的能力中起着重要作用。关于健康素养和成人健康的信息很多，但很少有研究关注青少年的健康素养。然而，青少年越来越多地参与到自己的保健工作中来，他们正处于发展的关键阶段，经历了许多变化，学习了成年所需的技能，同时仍处于有利于干预的环境中。为了促进对青少年和健康素养的研究，本研究的主要目的是在青少年样本中测量健康素养，并测试一种新的评估方法。本研究将比较先前有效的健康素养评估方法与一套新开发的自我报告问题，该问题旨在评估一系列健康素养技能（青少年健康素养评估量表，HAS-A）。本研究将使用从儿科诊所招募的300名青少年作为方便样本。HAS-A的开发将允许研究人员在自我管理的调查中纳入评估健康素养的有效量表，作为解释变量或结果变量，以支持青少年健康素养领域的未来研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Health literacy plays a significant role in one's ability to fully understand health information. Much information exists concerning health literacy and adult health, but few studies have focused on health literacy for adolescents. However, adolescents are increasingly involved with their health care and are at a crucial stage in their development, experiencing many changes and learning skills for adulthood while still accessing settings that can facilitate interventions. In order to promote research focusing on adolescents and health literacy, the main aim of this study is to measure health literacy among a sample of adolescents and to test a new method of assessment. This study will compare previously validated methods for assessing aspects of health literacy with a set of newly developed self-report questions designed to assess a range of health literacy skills (Health Literacy Assessment Scale for Adolescents, HAS-A). This study will use a convenience sample of 300 adolescents recruited from a pediatric clinic. The development of the HAS-A will allow for researchers to include a validated scale assessing health literacy in self-administered surveys as either an explanatory or outcome variable to support future research in the area of adolescent health literacy. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research is relevant to public health because health literacy has been identified as a significant public health issue given its potential to influence health outcomes. By enhancing efforts to assess health literacy for adolescents, those youth with low health literacy skills can be identified in order to promote participation in interventions which can provide assistance for improving health literacy abilities. The newly developed health literacy assessment tool is also important to public health because it will allow for the inclusion of health literacy measures in survey studies, promoting research that will lead to a greater understanding of predictors for and outcomes of low health literacy.