Reliability and Validity of the Korean Version of 8-item Health Literacy Assessment Tool (K-HLAT-8)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Health Literacy Assessment Tool (K-HLAT-8) for Korean adults. Methods: The survey was conducted from April 1, 2020 to May 30, 2020 at a university hospital, a university, and one community picnic area with adults who understood the purpose of the study and voluntarily agreed to participate. A total of 220 adults participated in this study. After forward and backward translation of the original version of the Health Literacy Assessment Tool 8 (HLAT-8) into Korean, construct validity (confirmatory factor analysis), convergent validity, and reliability were evaluated. Convergent validity was confirmed through the correlation between the K-HLAT-8 and the Self-As Carer Inventory (SCI). Results: Construct validity, evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis, showed good fit. The K-HLAT-8 showed a positive correlation with the SCI score. In terms of internal consistency, Cronbach’s α of the K-HLAT-8 was 0.85. For test-retest reliability, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was .99 (95% CI: 0.97~0.99). Conclusion: The reliability and validity were confirmed, so K-HLAT-8 can be applied to evaluate the health literacy of Korean adults. Furthermore, these assessment results should be used as basic data to implement programs that can improve health literacy.