Measuring COVID-19 health literacy: validation of the COVID-19 HL questionnaire in Spain

This repository contains the anonymized survey dataset used in the article Measuring COVID-19 health literacy: validation of the COVID-19 Health Literacy Questionnaire in Spain (Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 2022), DOI: 10.1186/s12955-022-02050-5.
The study evaluates the psychometric properties (data quality/acceptability, reliability, and construct/structural validity) of the Spanish version of the COVID-19 Health Literacy Questionnaire (CHL-Q), a 9-item instrument included in the WHO COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) initiative to study behavioural insights related to COVID-19.
Study design, setting, and participants: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the Spanish general population using an online survey agency. Data were collected 27 July–3 August 2020, after the first pandemic wave and after the end of Spain’s general lockdown (21 June 2020).
The sample comprised 1,033 adults (≥18 years) living in Spain, drawn from an online panel of approximately 982,000 participants. Sampling was stratified to match the Spanish population by age, gender, and area of residence.
Dataset contents:
Sociodemographics: gender, age, education level, area of residence, and employment status.COVID-19 Health Literacy (CHL-Q, 9 items): perceived difficulty (4-point scale: very difficult to very easy) to access, understand, evaluate, and apply COVID-19 information.CHL-Q index (0–50): computed as (mean − 1) × (50/3) using the respondent’s mean across items.COVID-19 infection status: self-reported (yes/no).Information-seeking behaviour: frequency of using 8 information sources (e.g., TV news, social networks, internet, government website, WHO reports), rated 1 (never) to 5 (very often).COVID-19 knowledge: agreement with 12 true/false statements; total correct answers form a knowledge score (0–12).Confusion related to COVID-19 information (misinformation-related confusion): difficulty deciding whether information was right or wrong (yes/no).Adherence to preventive measures: measures taken in the last 7 days (yes/no), summarized as a total preventive adherence score (0–8).Statistical analysis: Psychometric evaluation used Classical Test Theory (CTT) (including internal consistency indicators such as Cronbach’s alpha and item-total correlations) and a Rasch analysis (performed on a random subsample of 300 to avoid over-sensitivity to large sample sizes).
Ethical and legal considerations: The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) (CEI PI 59_2020-v2), and informed consent was obtained prior to completing the online questionnaire.