Assessing Prevention Protocols by a Brief Questionnaire in the Infectious Respiratory Diseases Pandemics: An Application in Pedestrian Population in COVID-19 Pandemic

Ali  Jafari-Khounigh; Alireza  Razzaghi; Hamid  Sharifi; Shahram  Habibzadeh; Seyed Taghi  Heydari; Rasool  Entezarmahdi; Mostafa  Farahbakhsh; Alireza Ansari  Moghaddam; Mahdi  Rezaei; Mohammad  Saadati; Ehsan  Sarbazi; Morteza  Haghighi; Mina  Golestani; Homayoun  Sadeghi-Bazargani

doi:10.18502/acta.v62i4.17433

Ali Jafari-Khounigh Road Traffic Injury Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Alireza Razzaghi Children Growth Research Center, Research Institute for Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran
Hamid Sharifi HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman, Iran
Shahram Habibzadeh Department of Infectious Disease, Ardabil University of Medical Science, Ardabil, Iran
Seyed Taghi Heydari Health Policy Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Rasool Entezarmahdi School of Medicine, Social Determinant of Health Research Centre, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran
Mostafa Farahbakhsh Research Center of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Alireza Ansari Moghaddam Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran
Mahdi Rezaei Road Traffic Injury Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Mohammad Saadati Khoy University of Medical Sciences, Khoy, Iran
Ehsan Sarbazi Road Traffic Injury Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Morteza Haghighi Department of Public Health, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran
Mina Golestani Medical Philosophy and History Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Homayoun Sadeghi-Bazargani Research Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Iranian EBM Centre: A Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Center of Excellence, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/acta.v62i4.17433

Keywords: Validity; Reliability; Psychometric; Pedestrian; Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Epidemiology

Abstract

To perform effective prevention programs, we need to know how well people follow prevention protocols, like mask use and social distancing, measuring using standard tools. This study aims to develop and validate a brief questionnaire to assess the compliance with prevention protocols against infectious respiratory diseases pandemics including COVID-19 in pedestrians. This cross-sectional study was conducted using convenience sampling method in May and June 2021. Construct validity of the questionnaire was assessed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Content validity was evaluated by quantitative method, thus, Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity Index (CVI) were calculated. For reliability of the questionnaire, the internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha, and test-retest reliability using Spearman-Brown correlation coefficient were assessed. A total of 324 persons from three provinces of Iran participated in this study. The mean age (SD) of participants was 41.5 (16.7). The CVR values resulted in the elimination of two questions. The Scale level CVI/Average (S-CVI/Ave) was equal to 0.992; and Scale level CVI/Universal Agreement (S-CVI/UA) was 0.889. One factor with five items emerged from principal component factor analysis accounting for 51.99% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient equal to 0.76 indicated an acceptable internal consistency and the Spearman-Brown correlation coefficient of 0.939 depicted stability of the questionnaire. This questionnaire is a brief tool with acceptable validity and reliability to evaluate the compliance with preventive protocols during infectious respiratory diseases outbreaks in order for policy-makers to make effective interventions to slow down the spread of disease.