Validity and reliability of the questionnaire assessing the healthcare delivery status in Iran’s prisons

Abstract

Considering the prisoners’ statistical population in Iran and the illness-prone environment of the prisons, which necessitates the delivery of appropriate healthcare, a tool should be developed to assess the status of healthcare delivery to these prisoners. The current study has been conducted with the aim of assessing the validity and reliability of the developed questionnaire for assessing the healthcare delivery status in Iran’s prisons. This research is a descriptive-analytical study. The developed questionnaire was given to the experts’ panel to be assessed for content validity. Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) were calculated using the collected opinions. To assess the validity of this questionnaire, 25 people including physicians and prison authorities were asked to fill the questionnaire for another time after 15 days. Test and retest reliability were calculated using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Kappa’s agreement coefficient. Data were analyzed by SPSS.26 and Excel.2019 softwares. The content validity experts verified the questionnaire based on its appropriateness, clarity, necessity, and congruity between its words and the relating culture. CVR index was higher than the least standard value (0.62) in every item. Also, all variables of the questionnaire had a CVI of higher than 0.70. Kappa’s agreement coefficients of all items ranged from 0.61 to 1.00. ICC values for all items except “Time for system’s admissions process” ranged from 0.71 to 1.00 in two times that tests were done. This indicates that reliability of the test and retest of the questionnaire was acceptable. The final version of the questionnaire can be used as a tool for assessment of the healthcare delivery status in prisons and planning programs to enhance that.