Validity and reliability of the short-form adolescent health promotion scale among adolescents and young adults in Ghana: methodological study

Abstract Background and aim Assessing health promotion among adolescents and young adults is vital to identify healthy and unhealthy behaviours as well as to evaluate health promotion interventions. However, there is no valid and reliable scale to assess health promotion among Ghanaians. For the first time, this study determined the validity and reliability of the original version of the Short‐Form Adolescent Health Promotion (AHP) scale among adolescents and young adults in Ghana. Method This cross-sectional methodological study included 617 adolescents and young adults within Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data from study participants. The AHP-Scale was also used to collect data on participants health promoting behaviors. The scale’s validity was evaluated using Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO), Bartlett’s test of sphericity and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), whilst the reliability was assessed using the Cronbach’s ɑ coefficient. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software version 26. Results The KMO and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity were reported to be 0.899 and χ 2 (276) = 6682.338 respectively, allowing for EFA with orthogonal rotation. The EFA revealed five factors covering 54.62% of the total variance. The factor loading order of the items did not exactly correspond to the order obtained in the original version of the scale’s validity analysis as the original scale had six factors. This six-factor loading scale was valid in regards to construct validity. The obtained factors included: life appreciation, exercise, stress management, nutrition, and social support. In this current study, Cronbach’s ɑ was calculated at 0.87 for the whole scale and between 0.71 and 0.92 for its subscales. Thus, indicating the current scale reliable. Conclusion The six-factor loading scale of the Adolescent Health Promotion scale developed in the present study is acceptable for the validity and reliability assessment. However, the construct validity of this scale should be checked in other samples as it did not cover a large variance of the population. Large population wide studies are also needed to augment the current study findings with additional modifications for the adopted AHP scale.