Assessing Health Literacy for Adolescents: A Pilot Study

描述(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发挥着重要作用。关于健康素养和成人健康的信息很多，但很少有研究侧重于青少年的健康素养。然而，青少年越来越多地参与其保健工作，并处于其发展的关键阶段，他们在成年后经历了许多变化和学习技能，同时仍能接触到可促进干预的环境。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抽样的青少年中测量健康素养，并测试一种新的评估方法。这项研究将比较以前经过验证的评估健康素养各方面的方法与一套新开发的自我报告问题，这些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)。这项研究将使用从儿科诊所招募的300名青少年的便利样本。HAS-A的开发将使研究人员能够在自我管理的调查中纳入经过验证的评估健康素养的量表，作为解释性变量或结果变量，以支持未来在青少年健康素养领域的研究。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究与公共卫生相关，因为健康素养已被确定为一个重要的公共卫生问题，因为它有可能影响健康结果。通过加强对青少年健康素养的评估，可以确定那些健康素养技能较低的青年，以便促进参与可为提高健康素养能力提供帮助的干预措施。新开发的健康素养评估工具对公共卫生也很重要，因为它将允许将健康素养措施纳入调查研究，促进研究，从而更好地了解低健康素养的预测因素和结果。

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.