BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Health literacy is an essential skill for today's health care consumers. The growth in use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) adds to the complexity of being sufficiently health literate. The purpose of this article is to describe the initial psychometric evaluation of the "Montana State University (MSU) CAM Health Literacy Scale," a newly developed instrument to measure an individual's health literacy about CAM. METHODS: Exploratory factor analyses, reliabilities, and conceptual considerations were used. RESULTS: The outcome is a 21-item instrument with Cronbach's alpha of .753 and 42.27% explained variance. Convergent validity assessments revealed weak but significant correlations between the scale and measures of general health literacy. CONCLUSIONS: The MSU CAM Health Literacy Scale has promise for use in future research and clinical endeavors.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Health literacy is an essential skill for today's health care consumers. The growth in use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) adds to the complexity of being sufficiently health literate. The purpose of this article is to describe the initial psychometric evaluation of the "Montana State University (MSU) CAM Health Literacy Scale," a newly developed instrument to measure an individual's health literacy about CAM. METHODS: Exploratory factor analyses, reliabilities, and conceptual considerations were used. RESULTS: The outcome is a 21-item instrument with Cronbach's alpha of .753 and 42.27% explained variance. Convergent validity assessments revealed weak but significant correlations between the scale and measures of general health literacy. CONCLUSIONS: The MSU CAM Health Literacy Scale has promise for use in future research and clinical endeavors.
Authors: Chandra Y Osborn; Barry D Weiss; Terry C Davis; Silvia Skripkauskas; Christopher Rodrigue; Pat F Bass; Michael S Wolf Journal: Am J Health Behav Date: 2007 Sep-Oct
Authors: Barry D Weiss; Mary Z Mays; William Martz; Kelley Merriam Castro; Darren A DeWalt; Michael P Pignone; Joy Mockbee; Frank A Hale Journal: Ann Fam Med Date: 2005 Nov-Dec Impact factor: 5.166
Authors: Hsiang-Wen Lin; Elizabeth H Chang; Yu Ko; Chun-Yu Wang; Yu-Shan Wang; Okti Ratna Mafruhah; Shang-Hua Wu; Yu-Chieh Chen; Yen-Ming Huang Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2020-09-23 Impact factor: 3.390