Designing and Determining the Validity and Reliability of a Questionnaire to Assess Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Healthcare Workers about Dengue in Mazandaran Province, North of Iran

Background and purpose: The knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of healthcare workers are important to reduce the transmission and burden of dengue. There is no standard tool to assess KAP of healthcare workers about dengue in Mazandaran Province, Iran, so this study was conducted to design and assess the validity and reliability of a questionnaire in Persian assessing KAP of healthcare workers about these mosquito-borne viral disease. Materials and methods: In this descriptive analytical study, a preliminary questionnaire containing 81 questions was designed after reviewing articles and interviews with experts. To determine the validity of the scale, quantitative-qualitative face and content validity were measured, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess the reliability. Results: In the study of face validity and qualitative content, experts' opinions were applied to the items as minor changes. The Impact Score (IS) of all items were higher than 1.5 (1.5-5) which provided supports for items importance. Content validity, based on the Lawshe table, optimal value of content validity ratio (CVR), and content validity index (CVI) were 0.6 and higher than 0.8, respectively. All items except one that was removed, obtained the desired score and were retained in the scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.79 which showed that all items had an acceptable correlation. Conclusion: This study provided a reliable and valid tool in Persian to assess KAP of healthcare workers about dengue in Mazandaran Province, north of Iran and can be used for measuring dengue KAP by Iranian researchers.