RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The workforce is an organization's most important asset, and ensuring their health and safety is crucial for achieving the organization's mission and goals. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to design and validate a health literacy tool for COVID-19 among Iranian workers. METHODS: This cross-sectional study involved a total of 201 participants. A personal information questionnaire was administered, and The Health Literacy Assessment (HLA) Tool was used to collect data specifically related to COVID-19. The HLA for COVID-19 was designed and developed, and the validity of the tool was evaluated through face, content, convergent, and construct validity analyses. To examine convergent validity, the Perceived Stress Scale was used. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using internal consistency measures, such as Cronbach's alpha coefficient. KEY RESULTS: The mean content validity index was 0.93, indicating high content validity. Confirmatory factor analysis results supported the five-dimensional structure of the tool. Significant correlations were found between the HLA for COVID-19 and perceived stress levels. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for all items was 0.84, indicating high internal consistency. CONCLUSION: The HLA for COVID-19 is a concise, reliable tool for measuring health literacy related to COVID-19 among Iranian workers. Assessing COVID-19 health literacy in this population can be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of government officials, the media, and the medical and scientific community in providing necessary information. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2024;8(2):e62-e68.].
PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: The workforce is an organization's most important asset, and ensuring their health and safety is crucial for achieving the organization's mission and goals. The objective of this study was to design and validate a health literacy tool for COVID-19 among Iranian workers.The HLA for COVID-19 is a concise, reliable tool for measuring health literacy related to COVID-19 among Iranian workers. Assessing COVID-19 health literacy in this population can be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of government officials, the media, and the medical and scientific community in providing necessary information. Health literacy plays a crucial role in disease prevention, including the control of epidemics. It can be particularly valuable in empowering societies affected by crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a profound impact on all aspects of human life. In international studies focused on assessing health literacy during the pandemic, researchers utilized public health literacy scales. However, only one study developed a specific scale to evaluate people's health literacy concerning COVID-19.