The Social Insurance Literacy Questionnaire (SILQ): Development and Psychometric Evaluation.
Christian Ståhl, Elin Karlsson, Marika Wenemark and 2 others
PMID 38159124WHAT IT FOUND
A new 23-item questionnaire measures how well sick leave clients understand and act on insurance information, and how clear the agency is.
It works well for most people, but scores for men and women differ significantly on one item about arguing legal cases.
Key findings
01The final questionnaire has 23 items across four scales: Obtain, Understand, Act, and System.
02The questionnaire showed good reliability for the Obtain, Understand, and System scales, but the Act scale had a person separation index of 0.68, which is below the expected 0.7.
03One item in the Act scale, about arguing by referring to laws or certificates, functioned differently for men and women, with males scoring significantly lower levels than females.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The response rate was only 29%, and respondents were more likely to be female, older, and better educated than non-respondents, so the results may not represent all sick leave clients. The study only tested how the questionnaire works; it did not prove that the scores predict actual success in getting benefits. The 'Act' scale had lower reliability and a significant gender bias on one item, making it less trustworthy for comparing men and women. The questionnaire relies on people judging their own abilities, which can be inaccurate compared to objective tests.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency) and Linköping University.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this questionnaire measures a single, fixed personal trait like IQ. It includes a 'System' scale that measures how well the insurance agency communicates. A low score might mean the agency is unclear, not that the client is unintelligent.