Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Sep 23:13:886815.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.886815. eCollection 2022.

Validity and reliability of the Musicians' Health Literacy Questionnaire, MHL-Q19

Christine Guptill  1 , Teri Slade  2 , Vera Baadjou  3 , Mary Roduta Roberts  2 , Rae de Lisle  4 , Jane Ginsborg  5 , Bridget Rennie-Salonen  6 , Bronwen Jane Ackermann  7 , Peter Visentin  8 , Suzanne Wijsman  9
Affiliations
Review

Validity and reliability of the Musicians' Health Literacy Questionnaire, MHL-Q19

Christine Guptill et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

High prevalence of musicians' physical and mental performance-related health issues (PRHI) has been demonstrated over the last 30 years. To address this, health promotion strategies have been implemented at some post-secondary music institutions around the world, yet the high prevalence of PRHI has persisted. In 2018, an international group of researchers formed the Musicians' Health Literacy Consortium to determine how best to decrease PRHI, and to examine the relationship between PRHI and health literacy. An outcome of the Consortium was the development of a new health literacy tool for musicians, the MHL-Q19, which drew from the theoretical framework of the European health literacy suite of tools, HLS-EU. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the MHL-Q19. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires, including the HLS-EU-Q16 for the assessment of general health literacy; the Musculoskeletal Pain Intensity and Interference Questionnaire for Musicians (MPIIQM); the RAND-12 quality of life questionnaire; and the General Self-Efficacy scale (GSE). We hypothesized that the MHL-Q19 would have a weak correlation with the HLS-EU-Q16; moderate correlation with the physical component scale and weak correlation with the mental component scale of the RAND-12; moderate correlation with the GSE; and finally, moderate correlation with pain interference and weak correlation with pain intensity of the MPIIQM. A total of 549 post-secondary music students from six English-speaking countries completed the battery of questionnaires, and 328 of these participants provided valid responses to the MHL-Q19 alone 2 weeks later. The tool showed acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Three of our hypotheses were supported, although the strength of the correlations varied from what we had predicted. The fourth hypothesis was not supported; our findings indicate that lower health literacy scores were weakly related to higher MPIIQM pain intensity and interference scores. The results of this study support the notion that musicians' health literacy is a distinct construct that cannot be fully evaluated with existing health literacy tools. Given that this is a new instrument, the evidence presented is positive and promising. Further studies will be needed to refine the tool.

Keywords: health literacy; musicians’ health; occupational health; psychometrics; reliability; validity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Four dimensions of health literacy across three domains of health: original HLS-EU health literacy matrix (Sørensen et al., 2012; used with permission) and adapted MHL-Q19 matrix (Wijsman et al., forthcoming; see footnote 1).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Questions from the Musicians’ Health Literacy Questionnaire, MHL-Q19, and their corresponding HLS-EU-Q matrix domains.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abubakar A., Dimitrova R., Adams B., Jordanov V., Stefenel D. (2013). Procedures for translating and evaluating equivalence of questionnaires for use in cross-cultural studies. Bull. Transilv. Univ. Braşov. Ser. VII Soc. Sci. Law 6:55.
    1. Ackermann B., Driscoll T., Kenny D. T. (2012). Musculoskeletal pain and injury in professional orchestral musicians in Australia. Med. Probl. Perform. Art. 27, 181–187. doi: 10.21091/mppa.2012.4034, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ackermann B. J., Kenny D. T., O’Brien I., Driscoll T. (2014). Sound practice—improving occupational health and safety for professional orchestral musicians in Australia. Front. Psychol. 5:973. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00973, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Araújo L. S., Wasley D., Perkins R., Atkins L., Redding E., Ginsborg J., et al. . (2017). Fit to perform: an investigation of higher education music students’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours toward health. Front. Psychol. 8, 1558. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01558, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baadjou V. A., Ackermann B. J., Verbunt J. A. M. C. F., van Eijsden-Besseling M. D. F., de Bie R., Smeets R. J. E. (2021). Implementation of health education interventions at Dutch music schools. Health Promot. Int. 36, 334–348. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daaa050, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources