Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the Oral Health Literacy Assessment in Spanish and development of a shortened form of the instrument

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Oral Health Literacy Assessment in Spanish (OHLA-S) for the Brazilian-Portuguese language using robust analysis and with the results disclose possibilities to develop a shorter and more valid instrument.

Methods: OHLA-S is an oral health literacy instrument comprising a word recognition section and a comprehension section. It consists of 24 dental words. It was translated into the Brazilian-Portuguese language (OHLA-B) and its psychometric properties were evaluated in a random sample of 250 adults aged 20–59 years. To assess the dimensionality and factor structure were tested by means of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Reliability was assessed using two indicators: Cronbach's alpha and McDonald’s Omega.

Results: EFA and CFA demonstrated that the OHLA-B with 24 items did not present an adequate adjustment of the model, compromising its validity. In ...