Validity testing of the Health Literacy Questionnaire on a sample of musicians in the United Kingdom

Efforts aimed at measuring health literacy among musicians are very recent. A better understanding of musicians’ health literacy can help educators, health professionals, organisations and relevant specialists address the needs of musicians more specifically. The aim was to assess scale reliability and model fit of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) on a sample of UK-based musicians. We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the model and calculated Cronbach’s alpha scores for internal consistency and mean scores for the nine scales. Demographic information was obtained from 471 respondents aged 19–78 years ( M = 34, SD = 14). Subsequent to some slight amendments, a modified 8-factor model showed an improved and acceptable fit. This is the first study to investigate musicians’ health literacy using an already existing tool.