Development of a questionnaire on awareness about occupational therapy among health-care professionals: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background: Occupational therapists are recognized as essential members of the health-care team. Occupational therapy treatments are required to deliver better services and to promote a comprehensive service approach. Occupational therapy awareness is critical for providing high-quality care to all patients. There is, however, a paucity of studies aimed at determining occupational therapy awareness and knowledge. This study aimed to develop a questionnaire to assess health-care professionals' (HP's) awareness and knowledge of occupational therapy. Objectives: This study aimed to develop a reliable questionnaire to assess HP's awareness and knowledge about occupational therapy. Study Design: This study was based on a cross-sectional design. Methods: The questionnaire was created in three stages. Initially, the first stage was to do a literature review for item generation. The second stage was to circulate a draft of the questionnaire among experts for face validity, and stage three was to test the reliability of items. Results: The generated items underwent face validity by ten experts. After face validation, the final questionnaire consisting of two sections (awareness and knowledge about OT and advocacy) were circulated to fifty health-care professionals. A statistical analysis (Cronbach's alpha) was done to analyze internal consistency, which indicates α = 0.78. Conclusion: This study concludes that the questionnaire is reliable for exploring awareness and knowledge about occupational therapy.