Reliability and Validity of an Instrument to Evaluate Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Measures for Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in Malaysia: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Preventing the spread of COVID-19 is crucial in flattening the COVID-19 infection curve. General population control measures should emphasise on understanding the knowledge about the disease and importance of following regulations related to restriction on movement. The aim of this pilot study was to develop a valid, reliable and practical instrument on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Measures for Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in Malaysia. The instrument was developed based on a Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) conceptual framework. The instrument in the form of a questionnaire was distributed online to a sample of 40 adults. The initial questionnaires contained 16, 17 and 14 questions on knowledge, attitude and practices domains, respectively. The content validity was assessed by the experts. The reliability of the instrument was measured using internal consistency reliability, which was measured using alpha coefficient reliability of Cronbach Alpha. The analysis showed that the total Cronbach Alpha value for knowledge, attitude and practice were 0.93, 0.89 and 0.87 respectively. After one item dropped from the attitude domain, the findings of this pilot study show that the instrument is valid and reliable to be used in a further larger study. This study demonstrated that the three scales of knowledge, attitude and practice were reliable and valid for assessing the prevention of spread of COVID-19 in Malaysia, although further analysis are needed to improve especially on the knowledge scale due to the low level of difficulty.