title: Portuguese community pharmacists' attitudes to and knowledge of antibiotic misuse: questionnaire development and reliability.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop and evaluate the reliability of a self-administered questionnaire designed to assess the attitudes and knowledge of community pharmacists in Portugal about microbial resistance and the antibiotic dispensing process.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was divided into the following three stages: (1) design of the questionnaire, which included a literature review and a qualitative study with focus-group sessions; (2) assessment of face and content validity, using a panel of experts and a pre-test of community pharmacists; and, (3) pilot study and reliability analysis, which included a test-retest study covering fifty practising pharmacists based at community pharmacies in five districts situated in Northern Portugal. Questionnaire reproducibility was quantified using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC; 95% confidence interval) computed by means of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The correlation coefficients were fair to good (ICC>0.4) for all statements (scale-items) regarding knowledge of and attitudes to antibiotic resistance, and ranged from fair to good to excellent for statements about situations in which pharmacists acknowledged that antibiotics were sometimes dispensed without a medical prescription (ICC>0.8). Cronbach's alpha for this section was 0.716.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The questionnaire designed in this study is valid and reliable in terms of content validity, face validity and reproducibility.
authors.affiliation: Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior (CICS/UBI), Covilhã, Portugal; Centre for Cell Biology, University of Aveiro (CBC/UA), Aveiro, Portugal; Research Unit for Inland Development, Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (UDI/IPG), Guarda, Portugal.
authors.forename: Fátima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Roque
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cell Biology, University of Aveiro (CBC/UA), Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.affiliation: Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior (CICS/UBI), Covilhã, Portugal.
authors.forename: Luiza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Breitenfeld
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de compostela, Spain; Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology & Public Health (CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública - CIBERESP), University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Adolfo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Figueiras
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cell Biology, University of Aveiro (CBC/UA), Aveiro, Portugal; Centre for Health Technology & Information Systems Research (CINTESIS/FMUP), Porto, Portugal; Health Technology Research Centre (CITS/CESPU), Gandra, Portugal.
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Herdeiro
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010594:Pharmacies; D010595:Pharmacists; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011174:Portugal; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents