Development and Validation of a Tool to Assess Perceptions and Practices Regarding Hypertension and Associated Comorbidities among Primary Health Care Providers of a Rural Community in India.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Primary health-care providers can play a crucial role in the prevention and early detection of non-communicable diseases. Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) survey of primary health-care providers is needed to assess their gaps in knowledge, and identify barriers for effective implementation of the national program. However, such KAP instruments are lacking. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to develop, validate and assess the reliability of a questionnaire to determine the KAPs of primary health-care providers about hypertension and associated comorbidities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in the following steps: item construction and psychometric testing, by validity and reliability analysis. RESULTS: The final KAP questionnaire comprised 25 knowledge items, 12 attitude items, and 8 practice items. Exploratory factor analysis using principal axis factoring with varimax rotation revealed four dimensions in the attitude section explaining 35.93% and two dimensions in practice sections explaining 65.96% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for attitude and practice session measured 0.65 and 0.85, respectively. A Kuder Richardson value of 0.70 was obtained for the knowledge section. ICC coefficients were 0.56 (P < 0.00) for knowledge, 0.77 (P < 0.00) for attitude and 0.88 (P < 0.00) for practice sections indicating moderate-to-good correlations. Overall, the instrument developed had acceptable validity and reliability. CONCLUSION: Overall, the instrument developed had acceptable validity and reliability to assess the perceptions and practices of primary healthcare providers about prevention and control of hypertension and associated comorbidities in the community.