Turkish adaptation of health literacy sensitive communication scale: A validity and reliability study.

PURPOSE

The objective of this study is to adapt the Health Literacy Sensitive Communication Scale (HL-COM) for Turkish society and to evaluate its validity and reliability.

METHOD

The scale's psychometric properties were evaluated including reliability and construct validity, through measures such as internal consistency, item-total correlation coefficients and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), respectively. A sample of 221 patients with diabetes was selected to participate in the study.

FINDINGS

The HL-COM displayed satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha values.95) and time based stability (ICC values.98). Item-total score correlations revealed moderate associations between each item and the scale, with all items adequately representing the construct. The content validity index (CVI) was.93. According to the findings of confirmatory factor analysis obtained from the validity analysis, the fit index of the scale was found to be χ2/df = 2,21 and the scale had a one factor structure. In addition, other good fit indexes of the model also show that the proposed model is acceptable [GFI= .94, RMSEA= .074, CFI= .98, AGFI= .90, NFI= .97] CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that Turkish version of the HL-COM is a valid and reliable instrument to assess the health sensitive communication proficiencies of healthcare professionals from the perspective of patients with diabetes.