Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to translate and validate the reliability and validity of the Falls Health Literacy Scale (FHLS). METHODS: A total of 509 elderly hospitalized patients were recruited from Wuhan, China. The reliability of the scale was validated using internal consistency, split-half reliability and retest reliability. The validity of the scale with content validity index, exploratory factor analysis and validation factor analysis. RESULTS: The Chinese version of the FHLS consists of 3 dimensions, falls prevention experience, general health and staying active, and seeking health advice and services, with a total of 25 entries. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the scale was 0.949, the range of Cronbach's α values for each dimension was 0.911 to 0.927, the split-half reliability was 0.800, and the retest reliability was 0.801. The I-CVI of the scale ranged from 0.833 to 1.000, and the S-CVI was 0.973. The KMO value was 0.925, and the χ(2) value of Bartlett's sphericity test was 5,784.223 (P < 0.001). Exploratory factor analysis extracted four metric factors, which were discussed and combined into three metric factors explaining 56.361% of the total variance. The results of validation factor analysis showed that the model indicators were: χ(2)/df = 2.182, CFI = 0.928, GFI = 0.820, NFI = 0.875, IFI = 0.928, RFI = 0.862, TLI = 0.920, RMSEA = 0.076, MRM = 0.021, which met the criteria, and the model fitting of the indicators were all in good. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese version of the FHLS has good reliability and validity for elderly patients and is suitable for assessing the falls health literacy level of elderly patients. The assessment of fall health literacy in elderly patients can help healthcare professionals to provide individualized health education to them, so as to improve the awareness of fall prevention in elderly patients.