Validation of Turkish Version of Newest Vital Sign Scale to Assess Health Literacy

Abstract

Objective:The aim of the study was to check Turkish validation of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) scale.Methods:The participants were composed of the patients who were registered in a Family Health Center located in Bursa between September 2016 and February 2017. The subjects selected by random sampling method and they were invited to the study. The research was performed by applying survey with the face to face method to the participants.Results:Turkish version of the NVS scale is a valid tool to assess health literacy. Cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.720 for NVS scale. Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis revealed a cut-off point for the NVS scale which was 4. According to the NVS scale, 57.9% of the participants had an adequate health literacy level.Conclusion:This sample was found to be adequate for validation analysis of NVS scale. NVS is a reliable and valid tool to evaluate health literacy among Turkish population and the cut-off point for the scale is 4. Health literacy is inadequate for less than half of the people living in our region.

Keywords

• health literacy
• newest vital sign
• reliability
• validation