Development and validation of the reproductive health literacy questionnaire for Chinese unmarried youth

Abstract

Plain Language Summary Despite growing research into evaluation structures for adolescent health literacy in the general population, there is currently a research scarcity in health literacy assessment tools for youth sexual and reproductive health. This is the first time the WHO health literacy framework has been used to construct and evaluate reproductive health literacy among Chinese youth. In this study, we described the questionnaire’s development process, reliability and validity, and utilisation among 1587 unmarried youth in Shanghai, China. Our findings indicated that the 58-item questionnaire we developed is effective to assess the reproductive health literacy in Chinese unmarried youth aged 15–24, which includes four aspects of literacy ability (accessing, understanding, appraising, and applying) to three health domains (reproductive health determinants, behavioural risk factors, and health service utilisation). The development of this tool can not only measure the reproductive health literacy level, but also be used for long-term monitoring, as well as facilitating effect evaluation of intervention. This questionnaire may also help to develop target interventions to improve reproductive health literacy of Chinese young people.

Keywords

• Reproductive health literacy
• Unmarried youth
• Questionnaire development
• Validation