Development and validation of a brief computer-administered HIV-Related Health Literacy Scale (HIV-HL)

AIDS Behav. 2013 Feb;17(2):710-8. doi: 10.1007/s10461-012-0301-3.

Abstract

Health literacy is related to a number of health status variables and has been associated with medication adherence in persons treated for HIV infection. Currently-available measures of health literacy require lengthy administration or have content or format limitations. In this paper we report the preliminary development and validation of a brief computer-administered health literacy test that includes content focused on medication adherence as well as questions based on a video simulation of an HIV-related clinical encounter. The measure shows significant relations with other measures of health literacy, HIV-related knowledge, and electronically-measured medication adherence. We also present receiver operating characteristic analyses that provide estimates of various scores' sensitivities and specificities so that the HIV-Related Health Literacy Scale can be used as a screening measure.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Anti-HIV Agents / therapeutic use*
  • CD4 Lymphocyte Count
  • Educational Status
  • Female
  • HIV Infections / drug therapy
  • HIV Infections / epidemiology*
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
  • Health Literacy / statistics & numerical data*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Medication Adherence / statistics & numerical data*
  • Qualitative Research
  • ROC Curve
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Viral Load

Substances

  • Anti-HIV Agents