Preliminary Study: Reliability of HIV Health Literacy Test (HIV-HLT) among People Living with HIV
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to test validity and reliability of HIV-HLT among people living with HIV.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: All 42 participants who visit HIV clinic, Thammasat University Hospital, October 2019 were enrolled. Participants were patients aged 18 - 64 years old, diagnosed with HIV infection. We developed a 20-item scale in 2019. The principal components analysis was used to assess the construct validity and reliability of the 20-item scale. The HIV health literacy test is to assess health literacy needed to participate in HIV care.
RESULTS: A total of 42 participants were included in this study. A mean age was 44.95±12.31 years old. 42.8% of the participants graduated with a bachelor's degree. One third of the participants had an income of ≥25,000 baht per month. Of all participants, 42.9% had been diagnosed with HIV for ≥5 years. 92.9% had a CD4 count more than 200 cells/cm3 and 81% had viral load below 20 copies/ml. The corrected item-total correlation of 20 items were higher than 2 with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89.
CONCLUSIONS: HIV-HLT was a reliable instrument. A further study is required to confirm whether items are appropriately under each domain.
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