Background: College students are a priority population for health insurance literacy interventions. Yet, there are few psychometric studies on measuring health insurance knowledge - a core construct of health insurance literacy.
Methods: We administered a health insurance survey to 2,250 college students. We applied Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory methods to estimate psychometric properties of the Kaiser Family Foundation's 10-item health insurance knowledge quiz.
Results: The scale is unidimensional, and a two-parameter logistic model best fit the data. IRT estimates indicated varying item discriminations (a range: 0.717-2.578) and difficulties (b range: -0.913-1.790). Precision of measurement was maximized for students half a standard deviation below the mean (θ = -0.686) health insurance knowledge ability.
Conclusions: This scale can be used to identify gaps in health insurance knowledge among college students and be applied in clinical and community health education practice.
Keywords: Item Response Theory; college students; health insurance knowledge; health insurance literacy; young adults.
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