Elaboration and validity and reliability analysis of a questionnaire to assess the knowledge of primary care physicians and nurses about trachoma

Abstract Objective: To develop and analyze the validity and reliability of a questionnaire to assess the knowledge of primary care physicians and nurses about trachoma. Methods: This is a methodological study of elaboration and analysis of validity and reliability of an instrument (questionnaire). The following steps were developed: 1) identification of updated source literature on the subject; 2) elaboration of the questionnaire items by the researchers; 3) content validation by experts; 4) construct validation with instrument application and hypothesis test analysis; 5) internal consistency analysis and; 6) temporal stability analysis (test-retest). Results: The study included 205 primary health care physicians and nurses and 10 specialists in ophthalmology and infectology. The instrument, initially with 52 items, was left with 41 items after all stages. The instrument was able to adequately discriminate professionals with greater and lesser knowledge, according to the hypothesis test (p <0.001). Cronbach's alpha was 0.86 and the test-retest recorded an agreement greater than 60% for most items. Conclusions: The final instrument presented satisfactory validity and reliability. It may be a useful tool to assess knowledge of primary health care professionals about trachoma and assisting in the development of educational strategies for these professionals.