Construction and evidence of validity of the knowledge assessment instrument on Quaternary Prevention

Abstract

Objective: to develop and estimate the evidence of validity of an instrument to assess the perception of medical students about Quaternary Prevention. Method: this is a methodological study carried out in three steps: 1) construction of the instrument to assess knowledge about Quaternary Prevention based on theoretical references; 2) content-based evidence of validity, performed by 13 judges; 3) internal structure-based evidence of validity, performed by 180 medical students. Factor analyzes were performed to verify the hierarchical structure of the model based on the two dimensions initially constructed: Knowledge Domain and Practical Domain. Results: The total scale content validity evidence coefficient (CVCt) was 0.98, demonstrating a high inter-rater agreement with the underlying theoretical conceptualization. As for instrument precision, all items had Cronbach's Alpha values above 0.7, indicating good precision. Good precision indicators were found for the scale with two factors (Knowledge Domain and Practical Domain) ƛ2= 109,746, gl= 103; p<0.001; ƛ2/gl=0.30; CFI=0.98 and RMSEA 0.019. Conclusion: the IP4-15 instrument presented adequate evidence of content validity, internal structure, precision, and properties of the items to assess the knowledge and practice of Quaternary Prevention of medical students. Future studies will be needed to investigate the applicability of IP4-15 to other populations.