Validation of the Health Literacy Competencies (IOHLC) instrument in Norwegian interdisciplinary health care professionals in specialist health care service

Background: Few instruments exist to capture interdisciplinary healthcare professionals' (HCPs) health literacy
(HL) sensitivity, such as knowledge, skills, and attentive attitudes, to pursue HL when communicating with
patients and their caregivers effectively.
Objective: This study aims to report on the psychometric properties of The Instrument of Health Literacy Com
petencies (IOHLC) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures on data from a sample of HCPs working
in specialist healthcare services in Norway.
Methods: The nine scales of the original Chinese IOHLC were translated and adapted from English into Norwegian
using a forward-backward translation procedure and cognitive interviews. For the psychometric evaluation, a
cross-sectional survey of 288 HCPs was conducted in a medium-sized hospital in Norway from July 2022 to
September 2022. The statistical analysis included correlation analysis (Persons R), internal consistency (Cron
bach's alpha), and CFA.
Results: The cognitive interviews led to changes in wording and the inclusion of an additional item in the survey.
Nine one-factor models resulted in an acceptable fit (i.e., >0.6), comprising 36of the 40 items in the original
version. Four items were excluded due to a low loading. In the final version, comprising 36 items, the alpha for
internal consistency was 0.7 and above.
Conclusions: The [...]