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
. 2022 Oct;6(4):e247-e256.
doi: 10.3928/24748307-20220920-01. Epub 2022 Oct 6.

Validation of the Short-Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults for the Samoan Population

Va'atausili Tofaeono, Katherine Tong, Angela Sy, Kevin Cassel, Ian Pagano, Lana Sue Ilima Ka'opua, Luana Scanlan, Lemala Thompson, Tulimalefoi Vaofanua, Jueta B McCutchan, Victor Tofaeono

Validation of the Short-Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults for the Samoan Population

Va'atausili Tofaeono et al. Health Lit Res Pract. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Health literacy encompasses various levels of communication for an individual, provider, and an organization. Validated and reliable tools have been developed to assess health literacy; however, there is a paucity of tools available to assess health literacy in native languages for indigenous and racial/ethnic minority populations.

Objective: This article shares the process taken to translate and evaluate validation and reliability of the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults for use with the Samoan population.

Methods: Respondent-driven sampling was used to collect data from 1,543 adults age 45 years and older in American Samoa. A confirmatory factor analysis using a two-factor model for validation was conducted.

Key results: The validation results indicated a "good fit" in multiple indices and Cronbach's alpha indicated high internal consistency in both the English and Samoan languages.

Conclusions: Developing culturally validated and reliable health literacy assessment tools is important to help health care professionals decrease health disparities and address inadequate health literacy in all cultures. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2022;6(4):e247-e256.] Plain Language Summary: The INSPIRE project studied the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (STOFHLA) tested on the American Samoan population age 50 years and older. The results would show if the STOFHLA is a valid tool to measure functional health literacy in American Samoa adults.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults question.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
English sample item means, standard deviations, and correlations.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Samoa sample item means, standard deviations, and correlations.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
English sample standardized results.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Samoan sample standardized results.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Anastasi , A. ( 1989. ). Ability testing in the 1980s and beyond: Some major trends . Public Personnel Management , 18 ( 4 ), 471 – 485 . 10.1177/009102608901800407 - DOI
    1. American Samoa Government . ( 2018. ). American Samoa Adult Hybrid Survey . https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/ncds/ncd-surveillance/amer...
    1. Bado , F. M. R. , Rebustini , F. , Jamieson , L. , Cortellazzi , K. L. , & Mialhe , F. L. ( 2018. ). Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the Oral Health Literacy Assessment in Spanish and development of a shortened form of the instrument . PLoS One , 13 ( 11 ), e0207989 10.1371/journal.pone.0207989 PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baker , D. W. , Williams , M. V. , Parker , R. M. , Gazmararian , J. A. , & Nurss , J. ( 1999. ). Development of a brief test to measure functional health literacy . Patient Education and Counseling , 38 ( 1 ), 33 – 42 . 10.1016/S0738-3991(98)00116-5 PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baron-Epel , O. , Balin , L. , Daniely , Z. , & Eidelman , S. ( 2007. ). Validation of a Hebrew health literacy test . Patient Education and Counseling , 67 ( 1–2 ), 235 – 239 . 10.1016/j.pec.2007.02.005 PMID: - DOI - PubMed

Publication types