Validity and reliability of Health Literacy for School-Aged Children (HLSAC) scale to understand the health literacy among adolescents in Bangladesh: An observational study.

Popi Rani Bhowmik, K A T M Ehsanul Huq, Abdulfatai Olamilekan Babaita, Gao Huiying, Michiko Moriyama

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Observational study in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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Popi Rani BhowmikGraduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Kasumi 1-2-3 Minami-Ku, Hiroshima, 734-8553, Japan.

K A T M Ehsanul HuqGraduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Kasumi 1-2-3 Minami-Ku, Hiroshima, 734-8553, Japan.

Abdulfatai Olamilekan BabaitaGraduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Kasumi 1-2-3 Minami-Ku, Hiroshima, 734-8553, Japan.

Gao HuiyingGraduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Kasumi 1-2-3 Minami-Ku, Hiroshima, 734-8553, Japan.

Michiko MoriyamaGraduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Kasumi 1-2-3 Minami-Ku, Hiroshima, 734-8553, Japan. morimich@hiroshima-u.ac.jp.

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6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundHealth Literacy (HL) is an effective determinant of health and health behaviors. The HL for School-Aged Children (HLSAC) scale has five components, and a 10-item was developed by Paakkari, 2016 in the Finnish language to measure the HL levels of adolescents. However, its validity and reliability were not tested among adolescents in the Bengali language. This study aimed to determine the validity and reliability of the HLSAC scale in the Bengali version among adolescents of secondary school children to evaluate their literacy status in Bangladesh.

methodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among secondary school children in two different schools in Bangladesh. The schools were purposively selected, one from both rural and urban areas. The participants were students graded between 7 and 9 at the time of enrollment. The validity and reliability of the HLSAC scale were checked by confirmatory factor analysis, convergent validity, Cronbach's alpha, and test-retest reliability.

resultsThe mean age of the participants was 13.5 years. The reliability of the HLSAC scale showed that Cronbach's alpha was 0.759. The confirmatory factor analysis model fit appears robust as the p-value was not significant (p = 0.137),

conclusionOur study found that the HLSAC scale, Bengali version is valid and reliable for school-aged adolescents in Bangladesh. This research finding allows for a suitable HLSAC scale to measure the level of HL among adolescents in Bangladesh.

Indexed as

Health LiteracyAdolescentBangladeshChildCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHumansMalePsychometricsReproducibility of ResultsSurveys and QuestionnairesAdolescentsHealth LiteracyHealth Literacy for School-Aged Children (HLSAC) scaleReliabilityValidity

Identifiers

PMID40361047

DOI10.1186/s12889-025-23005-7

PMCPMC12070557

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

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