Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23689952›Full record

ArticleEnvironmental health and preventive medicine2013

The 14-item health literacy scale for Japanese adults (HLS-14).

Machi Suka, Takeshi Odajima, Masayuki Kasai, Ataru Igarashi, Hirono Ishikawa, Makiko Kusama, Takeo Nakayama, Masahiko Sumitani, Hiroki Sugimori

Abstract readEvaluation Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Environmental health and preventive medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 101 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
101citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

101 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  6. Assessment Tools for Health Literacy among the General Population: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018
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  9. Medication literacy scale for patients with chronic constipation.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026
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41 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Machi SukaDepartment of Public Health and Environmental Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-8461, Japan, suka@jikei.ac.jp.
Takeshi Odajima
Masayuki Kasai
Ataru Igarashi
Hirono Ishikawa
Makiko Kusama
Takeo Nakayama
Masahiko Sumitani
Hiroki Sugimori

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesMost existing tools for measuring health literacy (HL) focus on reading comprehension and numeracy in English speakers. The aim of this study was to develop a generic HL measure for Japanese adults.

methodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among participants in multiphasic health examinations at a Japanese healthcare facility. HL was measured using the 14-item health literacy scale (HLS-14) that was adapted from the HL scale specific to diabetic patients developed by Ishikawa and colleagues. The 14 items consist of five items for functional HL, five items for communicative HL, and four items for critical HL. The reliability and validity of the HLS-14 were assessed among 1,507 eligible respondents aged 30-69 years.

resultsExplanatory factor analysis produced a three-factor solution that was very similar to the original HL scale. Cronbach's alpha indicated satisfactory internal consistency of the functional, communicative, and critical HL scores (0.83, 0.85, and 0.76, respectively). There were no floor or ceiling effects in each HL score. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed an acceptable fit of the three-factor model (comparative fit index = 0.912, normed fit index = 0.905, root mean square error of approximation = 0.082). When the two groups with a total HL score above and below the median (50), respectively, were compared, those who could obtain medication information satisfactorily and those who wanted to participate in making medication decisions were more frequently observed in the group with the higher score.

conclusionsThe HLS-14 demonstrated adequate reliability and validity as a generic HL measure for Japanese adults. This scale can be utilized for measuring functional, communicative, and critical HL in the clinical and public health contexts.

Indexed as

AdultAgedFactor Analysis, StatisticalFemaleHealth LiteracyHumansJapanMaleMiddle AgedSurveys and Questionnaires

Identifiers

PMID23689952
PMCPMC3773092

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.