Background: The main objective of the Informed Health Choices (IHC) project is to teach people to assess treatment claims and make informed health choices. For this purpose, the Claim Evaluation Tools item bank was developed to measure people’s ability to apply the IHC key concepts (concepts that people need to use to assess treatment claims and make informed health choices).
Objectives: To develop and validate the interactive CLAIM Test (iCLAIM Test), an online interactive test in Spanish, with questions from the Claim Evaluation Tools item bank. To measure the ability of Spanish primary school children to assess treatment claims and make informed health choices.
Methods: We followed a multistep process to develop the iCLAIM Test, including 1) selection of the questions from the Claim Evaluation Tools item bank; 2) direct translation, reconciliation, reverse translation, and final revision of the questions; 3) design of the interactive test in an online teaching platform; 4) external review with experts; 5) user testing with children; 6) a validation survey; and 7) adjustment of the test.
Results: Two researchers selected 24 multiple-choice questions (MCQ), which addressed the 12 IHC Key concepts included in the IHC primary school resources. Three Spanish researchers, a Spanish translator, and an English translator completed the translation process of the questions into Spanish. One web developer and two researchers designed the online interactive test. Twelve experts (7 researchers and 4 teachers from primary schools and 1 designer) reviewed the test, and 11 children participated in the user testing. During 2023, we will survey a sample of approximately 300 children from Spanish primary schools to validate the test. Finally, we will adjust the test according to the validation findings.
Conclusions: We expect to obtain a validated, online, and interactive test in Spanish to measure the ability of primary school children to assess treatment claims and make informed health choices. After that, we can use the iCLAIM Test to evaluate the effect of health education interventions in primary schools, such as using the IHC resources.
Patient, public and/or healthcare consumer involvement: Representatives from all the different areas of interest (students, teachers, researchers, and designers) participated in the study.