Objective To develop a health literacy questionnaire for caregivers of elderly inpatients and test its reliability and validity. Methods Based on the conceptual model of health literacy, a preliminary questionnaire was formed through literature review, group discussion, expert consultation and pre-survey.A total of 229 caregivers of elderly inpatients were selected for a survey, and the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were tested. Results The health literacy questionnaire for caregivers of elderly inpatients consisted of five dimensions and 30 items:health knowledge, care skills, knowledge acquisition, psychological support and seeking help. Exploratory factor analysis identified five principle factors, which explained 71.462% of total variance.The scale-level content validity index was 0.867, and the item-level content validity index ranged from 0.800 to 1.000.Cronbach′s α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.947, the split half reliability was 0.893, and the test-retest reliability was 0.954. Conclusion The health literacy questionnaire for caregivers of elderly inpatients has good reliability and validity, which can be used to evaluate the health literacy level of caregivers of elderly inpatients.