RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Medical students' white coats were found to harbor harmful organisms. This could be due to non-compliance to white coat hygiene measures. Therefore, we aim to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess the of knowledge, attitude, and practice (LAUNDERKAP) of white coat use among medical students in Malaysia. METHODS: This study was conducted in 4 local medical schools. LAUNDERKAP was developed via literature review and had 3 domains: attitude, knowledge, practice. An expert panel assessed the content validity and clarity of wording. LAUNDERKAP was then piloted among 32 medical students. To test construct validity and internal consistency, 362 medical students were approached. Construct validity was assessed using exploratory factor analysis. Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach alpha for attitude and practice, while Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR-20) was used for knowledge. RESULTS: A total of 319 of 362 students responded. Exploratory factor analysis extracted 1 factor each for attitude and knowledge respectively, and 3 factors for practice. Cronbach alpha for attitude was 0.843 while KR-20 for knowledge was 0.457. Cronbach alpha for practice ranged from 0.375 to 0.689. The final LAUNDERKAP contained 32-items (13 attitude, 9 knowledge, 10 practice). CONCLUSIONS: LAUNDERKAP had adequate psychometric properties and can be used to assess KAP of medical students towards white coat use.
