Objective  To evaluate the construct validity of an infectious disease-specific health literacy (IDSHL) scale for Chinese residents.

  Methods  We used a data set on 4 499 adult residents (15 – 60 years old) selected with random cluster sampling in three cities of three provinces across China from March to May 2015. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess psychometric properties of the IDSHL scale with AMOS 21.0.

  Results  Confirmatory factor analyses revealed a good fitness of the constructed model with the data and the indicators of the constructed model were as following: goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.969, adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI) = 0.962, root mean square residual (RMR) = 0.038, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.038, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.032, Tacker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.925, comparative-fit index (CFI) = 0.934, normed fit index (NFI) = 0.925, relative fitness index (RFI) = 0.915, incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.934, parsimony goodness-of-fit index (PGFI) = 0.778, parsimony normed fit index (PNFI) = 0.813, parsimony-adjusted comparative fit index (PCFI) = 0.821, critical number (CN) = 700. The factor loading for 22 measurement variables ranged from 0.160 to 0.732.

  Conclusion  The classification of dimensions for the IDSHL scale is reasonable and the scale is of good construct validity in measuring infectious disease-specific health literacy and the efficacy of intervention on infectious disease among Chinese residents.