Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41885198›Full record

ArticleHealth promotion international2026

Cultural and linguistic appropriateness of the HLS19-Q12 health literacy scale items among people in Norway with a Somali background.

Kathrine Krüger Østbøll, Øystein Guttersrud, Falastin Alasoow, Christopher Le, Josefin Wångdahl, Hanne Søberg Finbråten

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Article in Health promotion international, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Kathrine Krüger ØstbøllDepartment of Health and Nursing Sciences, Faculty of Social and Health Sciences, University of Inland Norway, PO Box 400, Elverum N-2418, Norway.ORCID 0009-0007-7064-250X
Øystein GuttersrudNorwegian Centre for Science Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1106, Blindern, Oslo N-0317, Norway.
Falastin AlasoowDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Stavanger University Hospital, Gerd Ragna Bloch Thorsens gate 8, Stavanger N-4011, Norway.
Christopher LeDepartment of Health and Nursing Sciences, Faculty of Social and Health Sciences, University of Inland Norway, PO Box 400, Elverum N-2418, Norway.
Josefin WångdahlAging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Tomtebodavägen 18a, Stockholm S-171 77, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0002-4743-8259
Hanne Søberg FinbråtenDepartment of Health and Nursing Sciences, Faculty of Social and Health Sciences, University of Inland Norway, PO Box 400, Elverum N-2418, Norway.

Funding

Norwegian Directorate of HealthUniversity of Inland Norway
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although health literacy (HL) is essential for achieving health equity, limited knowledge exists about HL among migrant populations. The cultural and linguistic appropriateness of existing HL measurement scales is scarce. Hence, the aim of this study was to explore the cultural and linguistic appropriateness of HLS19-Q12 scale items among individuals of Somali background living in Norway. The HLS19-Q12 measure general HL and is a short version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47). By using a sequential mixed methods approach, we present results from quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods meta-inferences perspective. We used data from the Somali diaspora in the Norwegian part of the Health Literacy Survey 2019 (HLS19) and tested the data against the partial credit Rasch model. Cross-cultural cognitive interviews (CCCI) were then conducted, in which data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The mixed methods approach gave us a comprehensive understanding. The CCCIs provided detailed insights into deviating items identified by the Rasch modelling, and the CCCIs revealed that more items were problematic than those flagged by Rasch modelling. A large body of literature examine psychometric properties of different scales. While this is important, this article also shows the challenges and implications in HL surveys regarding developing health equity policies for all. Hence, exploring the cultural and linguistically validation of scale items should be a standard. The Somali version of the HLS19-Q12 scale items could not be considered culturally or linguistically appropriate for people with a Somali background living in Norway.

Indexed as

Health LiteracyAdultFemaleHumansLanguageMaleMiddle AgedNorwayPsychometricsSomaliaSurveys and Questionnairescross-cultural cognitive interviewcross-cultural surveyhealth literacyHLS19-Q12-Somalimixed methodNorwegian HLS19 studyRasch modelling

Identifiers

PMID41885198
PMCPMC13019287

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.