Validity and reliability of a questionnaire assessing the knowledge, attitude, and awareness in the informal caregivers of comatose patients: An observational study.

Abstract

Background: Comatose is a state of deep unconsciousness in an individual being unresponsive which has an impact on the informal caregivers providing care to their kinships. The validity and reliability of the domains of the Knowledge, Attitude, Awareness-Comatose Caregiver Questionnaire (KAA-CCQ) and has been taken into consideration as an outcome measure to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and awareness among the caregivers of comatose patients. Methods: 68 informal caregivers above the age of 18 years related to comatose patients were included in the study. The self-developed KAA-CCQ was administered on the informal caregivers of comatose patients to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and awareness regarding coma. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were calculated by Spearman's rank correlation and Cronbach΄s alpha, respectively. Results: The reliability of all the three domains and the questionnaire was found to be 0.8 and the item correlation with respect to the domain was above 0.6 for the knowledge whereas it was above 0.6 for the attitude and awareness domains that justified the validity of the questionnaire, and also the questionnaire had an excellent reliability. Conclusion: The KAA-CCQ will be a suitable questionnaire to assess the knowledge, attitude, and awareness in the informal caregivers of comatose patients.