Development of a Sesotho health literacy test in a South African context

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Development of a Sesotho health literacy test in a South African context
 
Creator Reid, Marianne Nel, Mariette Janse van Rensburg-Bonthuyzen, Ega
 
Subject primary health care; health literacy health literacy assessment; primary health care; South Africa; developing countries; public health service; context-sensitive assessment
Description Background: Research shows that poor health literacy (HL) can be a threat to health and health care. Health literacy is under-researched and poorly understood in developing countries, including South Africa, because of the absence of language and context-specific HL tests.Aim: The researchers aimed to develop an appropriate HL test for use among South African public health service users with Sesotho as their first language.Setting: The test was developed in the Free State Province of South Africa, for use among Sesotho speakers.Methods: Mixed methods were employed to develop the Sesotho Health Literacy Test (SHLT). The process of developing the test was carried out in distinctive methodological steps.Results: The stepwise process set out by identifying abstracts (n = 206) referring to HL tests. Sourcing of HL tests followed a tapered process resulting in the use of 17 HL tests. Elements within a conceptual framework guided HL test item selection (n = 47). Two Delphi sessions assisted in reaching consensus regarding final HL test items (n = 40). The readability testing of the SHLT tested 4.19 on the Coleman–Liau Index score. A context-suitable and comprehensive SHLT ensued from this work.Conclusion: The SHLT assessment instrument development creates a platform for HL testing among Sesotho first language speakers in South Africa. The context-sensitive methodology is entrenched in a theoretical framework, distributing HL test items between identified competencies and related skill dimensions and domains. The methodology can be applied to the development of HL tests for other languages and population groups in developing countries.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor This research is funded by the University of the Free State and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF/Fundisa Grant: 2015/001).
Date 2019-04-24
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Mixed Methods
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v11i1.1853
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 11, No 1 (2019); 13 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1853/3065 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1853/3064 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1853/3066 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1853/3063
 
Coverage South Africa 2015-2017 purposefully selected workshop participants (n=11) included health communication specialists; a public health specialist who previously developed HL tests and health promotion representatives from the Free State Department of Health; lecturers in African
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Marianne Reid, Mariette Nel, Ega Janse van Rensburg-Bonthuyzen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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