Testing the reliability of the Health Literacy Questionnaire with carers of older adults receiving hospital care

Burton, E., Toye, C., Slatyer, S., Ferrari Jacinto, A., du Preez, J., Bronson, M. and Hill, K.D. (2021) Testing the reliability of the Health Literacy Questionnaire with carers of older adults receiving hospital care. Australasian Journal on Ageing . Early View.

Abstract

Objective

To determine the re‐test reliability of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) with carers of older adults discharged from hospital or attending the outpatient clinic.

Methods

Carers completed the HLQ twice by telephone and rated the acceptability of completing the tool. Tool completion time was recorded. Correlations were calculated between the test occasions using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and 95% confidence intervals.

Results

Fifty‐one carers of older patients participated. The HLQ showed good reliability (ICC = 0.75‐0.90) for seven of the nine scales and moderate reliability (0.50‐0.74) for the other two scales. Median completion time was 16.5 minutes (range 9‐50), and acceptability was rated as 9.5/10.

Conclusion

The HLQ is a reliable tool for use with carers of older adults attending hospital. However, the length of time for completion of the HLQ may limit its feasibility for use by hospital staff and carers, given the high stress and time pressures of acute care.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	Nursing
Publisher:	Wiley
Copyright:	© 2021 AJA Inc.
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/59517

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