title: Assessment of the validity and reliability of a questionnaire on knowledge and attitude of general practitioners about andropause.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Andropause is one of the clinical and biochemical syndromes in aging men associated with the decrease in serum testosterone levels. With the increase in aging male population, life span in Iran, and focus on quality of life, andropause will become a major health issue that needs to be addressed in order to prevent disability. General practitioners, as the first level of health care providers, are in the best position to assess their knowledge and attitude about andropause period, so a structured instrument is necessary to assess them. This study aimed at the assessment of the validity and reliability of the self-made questionnaire on knowledge and attitude of general practitioners about andropause.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a descriptive study done on 402 general physicians working in public and private sectors. The instrument used was a self-administered questionnaire that was developed based on the literature review and recourses available on andropause and was designed to find out the level of knowledge and attitude of andropause. In order to determine the content and face validity of the questionnaire, judgments of experts were used. Cronbach's coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. SPSS 18 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL) was used to analyze the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Content and face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts. The reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha of (0).895 for the part on knowledge and (0).839 for the part on attitude.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the results of the study, this questionnaire had appropriate validity and reliability to assess the knowledge and attitude of general practitioners about andropause.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Community Health Nursing , School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences , Shiraz , Iran.
authors.forename: Maliheh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abootalebi
authors.affiliation: b Department of Pediatric Nursing , School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences , Shiraz , Iran , and.
authors.forename: Marzieh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kargar
authors.affiliation: c Department of Urology , School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences , Shiraz , Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aminsharifi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D047649:Andropause; D001294:Attitude to Health; D058005:General Practitioners; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Andropause; general practitioner; reliability; validity