The Health Literacy Questionnaire
The HLS used the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ), held under licence by Deakin University in Victoria, Australia[1]. The HLQ was developed by Richard Osborne, Rachelle Buchbinder, Gerald Elsworth and Roy Batterham, and is more fully described in “The grounded psychometric development and initial validation of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ)” BMC Public Health, 2013, 13:658. More information about the HLQ can be found here: https://www.ophelia.net.au/hlq
The HLQ is one of the most widely used multi-dimensional health literacy assessment tools. It collects information on how people find, understand and use health information, and how they manage their health and interact with the health system and healthcare providers.
The HLQ consists of 44 questions organised into nine domains of health literacy for analysis and reporting purposes. Each question collected responses using a Likert scale of either 1-4 or 1-5. Responses for each domain were then averaged to produce 9 continuous output data items:
- Feeling understood and supported by healthcare providers (Domain 1)
- Having sufficient information to manage my health (Domain 2)
- Actively managing my health (Domain 3)
- Social support for health (Domain 4)
- Appraisal of health information (Domain 5)
- Ability to actively engage with healthcare providers (Domain 6)
- Navigating the healthcare system (Domain 7)
- Ability to find good health information (Domain 8)
- Understand health information well enough to know what to do (Domain 9).
Endnotes
1 The Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ).© Copyright 2014 Deakin University. Authors: RichardH Osborne, Rachelle Buchbinder, Roy Batterham, GeraldR Elsworth.No part of the HLQ can be reproduced, copied, altered or translated without the permission of the authors. Further information: HLQ-info@deakin.edu.au
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