The scales used in Spain to measure knowledge of covid-19, assess perceptions of the pandemic and analyse levels of pandemic fatigue are reliable and consistent, according to research carried out by researchers at the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid in connection with the Cosmo-Spain study.

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Researchers from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), in collaboration with scientists from other institutions, have published two articles on the validation of scales to analyse the health literacy of citizens during the pandemic and the level of pandemic fatigue developed by the population, two lines of work related to the Cosmo-Spain study, which has been assessing the social perception of the pandemic in Spain since 2020.

In the first paper, the authors evaluate the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the covid-19 Health Literacy Questionnaire (CHL-Q), which assesses the ability to access, understand, evaluate and apply information about coronaviruses, and was included in the WHO covid-19 Snapshot Monitoring initiative to facilitate knowledge and behavioural studies during the pandemic. The article has been published in the journal Health and Quality of Life Outcomes.

The results indicate that the Spanish version of this tool is “suitable and reliable for measuring covid-19-related health literacy in the general population”. Moreover, it is a useful instrument to assess whether public authorities, the media, and the medical and scientific community have been able to reach out to the population to provide them with the information in the terms they need. Such tools are essential to manage a reality that the covid-19 pandemic has highlighted: the importance of health literacy in making informed preventive decisions.

Pandemic fatigue
The second publication was aimed at analysing the psychometric properties of the covid-19 pandemic fatigue scale used in the general Spanish population (covid-19 Pandemic Fatigue Scale, CPFS). The results, published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, suggest that this scale has adequate reliability and consistency, “proving to be a useful tool for understanding the level of pandemic fatigue in the general population, which can help to guide communication and information strategies”.

A third publication, also related to Cosmo-Spain and led by the same team of ISCIII researchers, confirms the relevance of transmitting scientific knowledge to facilitate high levels of acceptance of vaccines against cpvid-19, as has happened in Spain.

The results, published in the American Journal of Public Health, show that acceptance of vaccination almost doubled between September 2020 and May 2021, and indicate that in order to strengthen public confidence in institutions, health professionals and the scientific community, it is essential to ensure accurate, simple and understandable access to information, seeking strategies for the most reluctant groups.