A SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY: THE HUMAN PAPİLLOMA VIRUS (HPV) LİTERACY CALE

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Education
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Human papillomavirus (HPV) poses a significant public health challenge.
• Effective public health education and intervention strategies require accurate measurement of HPV literacy.
• Existing tools may not comprehensively assess HPV literacy, necessitating scale development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a reliable and comprehensive scale for measuring human papillomavirus (HPV) literacy.
• To provide a tool for assessing HPV knowledge in public health contexts.
• To support the design of targeted HPV education and intervention programs.

Main Methods:

• Methodological and cross-sectional study design involving 407 participants.
• Data collection using the developed HPV literacy scale and a personal information form.
• Rigorous psychometric evaluation including content validity, item analyses, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Main Results:

• The HPV literacy scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .97).
• Item-total score correlations ranged from .557 to .788, indicating good item discrimination.
• Factor analysis revealed a robust three-factor structure explaining 66.7% of the total variance, with acceptable fit indices in CFA.

Conclusions:

• The developed HPV literacy scale is a valid and reliable instrument.
• The scale is suitable for application within the Turkish population.
• This tool can significantly contribute to public health initiatives related to HPV prevention and education.