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Development and Validation of a Brief Computer-Administered HIV-Related Health Literacy Scale (HIV-HL)

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Abstract

Health literacy is related to a number of health status variables and has been associated with medication adherence in persons treated for HIV infection. Currently-available measures of health literacy require lengthy administration or have content or format limitations. In this paper we report the preliminary development and validation of a brief computer-administered health literacy test that includes content focused on medication adherence as well as questions based on a video simulation of an HIV-related clinical encounter. The measure shows significant relations with other measures of health literacy, HIV-related knowledge, and electronically-measured medication adherence. We also present receiver operating characteristic analyses that provide estimates of various scores’ sensitivities and specificities so that the HIV-Related Health Literacy Scale can be used as a screening measure.

Resumen

El alfabetismo en salud está relacionado con un sinnúmero de variables y ha sido asociado con la adherencia a los medicamentos en personas que reciben tratamiento para la infección por el VIH. Las medidas de alfabetismo en salud que están actualmente disponibles toman mucho tiempo en administrarse y evidencian limitaciones de contenido o formato. En este artículo, reportamos el desarrollo preliminar y la validación de una prueba computarizada breve de alfabetismo en salud cuyo contenido se centra en la adherencia a los medicamentos, así como en preguntas basadas en un video que presenta una simulación de una visita médica relacionada con el VIH. Esta medida demuestra relaciones significativas con otras medidas de alfabetismo en salud, el conocimiento relacionado al VIH y la adherencia a los medicamentos medida electrónicamente. También presentamos análisis de la curva ROC que proveen estimados de la sensibilidad y especificidad de varias puntuaciones, de modo que la medida VIH-AS pueda ser utilizada como un cribado.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this study was provided by Grant R21MH086491 to Dr. Ownby from the National Institute on Mental Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, Room 1477, 3200 South University Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33328, USA

    Raymond L. Ownby & Robin Jacobs

  2. Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Drenna Waldrop-Valverde

  3. Center for Statistical Consulting, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

    Patrick Hardigan

  4. College of Pharmacy, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

    Joshua Caballero

  5. Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

    Amarilis Acevedo

Authors
  1. Raymond L. Ownby
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  2. Drenna Waldrop-Valverde
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  3. Patrick Hardigan
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  4. Joshua Caballero
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  5. Robin Jacobs
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  6. Amarilis Acevedo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raymond L. Ownby.

Additional information

Obtaining the HIV-HL: Information about how to obtain and use the HIV-HL is available from Dr. Ownby (ro71@nova.edu).

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Ownby, R.L., Waldrop-Valverde, D., Hardigan, P. et al. Development and Validation of a Brief Computer-Administered HIV-Related Health Literacy Scale (HIV-HL). AIDS Behav 17, 710–718 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-012-0301-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-012-0301-3

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