title: Psychometric Properties of a Standardized Questionnaire of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Iranian Medical Specialists about Viral Hepatitis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Good knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of the physicians allow them to handle their patients in such a way that they prevent themselves from contracting, and their patients from spreading, the infection. However, the Iranian standardized KAP questionnaire of physicians about viral hepatitis is not available. So, we developed a standard questionnaire.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to provide a standard questionnaire as a basic tool for assessment of the present situation of the KAP of clinicians. It can also be used for evaluating educational programs and interventions on physicians in addition to any trends in their KAP about viral hepatitis.
  
  
  METHODS
  In order to design and standardize a 29-item self-administered questionnaire, we developed a cross sectional pilot study on 60 Iranian physicians. Ten experts in the field of liver diseases and/or designing the questionnaire answered questions about its validity. Cronbach's Alpha (on 60 physicians that participated in a congress) and factor analysis (on 370 persons; participants of two viral hepatitis congresses in Tehran and Zanjan and physicians of two university hospitals in Ahvaz) were used in the analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reliability was 0.7 according to Cronbach's Alpha score. Face validity was higher than 80%. Content validity of the whole parts of the questionnaire was 96.25% for clarity, 91.56% for relevancy, 96.25% for simplicity and 98.44% for consistency of each question with the questions' set. Factor analysis showed that 13 components account for 67.4% of the total variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provided evidence that our questionnaire is a feasible, valid and reliable measure of physicians' KAP status in Iran. The factor analysis did not reveal a strong cluster structure. This questionnaire should be interpreted as a one-dimensional element by the sum of all items, rather than a multi-dimensional instrument.
authors: Rasoul Akram Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors: Shahin
authors: S
authors: Ghasemi
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Kabir
authors: Mojtaba
authors: M
authors: Ansari Jafari
authors: Mohammad
authors: M
authors: Jalali
authors: Afshin
authors: A
authors: Amini
authors: Amir Hossein
authors: AH
authors: Faghihi-Kashani
authors: Seyed Moayed
authors: SM
authors: Alavian
keywords: Hepatitis; Physicians; Questionnaires; Reliability; Validation Studies