Arsenic in mind: Construction of knowledge and attitude scales

Abstract

Chronic arsenic toxicity (arsenicosis) as a result of drinking arsenic-contaminated groundwater is a major environmental health hazard throughout the world, including India. During the last four decades arsenic contamination of groundwater in nine districts out of twenty in West Bengal has become a serious problem. About 20% population of West Bengal in nine districts (Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24- Parganas, and South 24-Parganas, Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly and Burdwan) are affected by arsenic problem. To prevent this harmful effect, every people need to have proper knowledge and positive attitude towards arsenic. In this study, the researcher constructed a standardized tool of knowledge and attitude towards arsenic to assess the knowledge and attitude level of arsenic among the people of arsenic contaminated area. The researcher took item analysis method to assess the quality of the items of every section. Then the tools were measured the reliability by the Pearson’s product moment correlation method. Primarily two self-administered tools of 39 knowledge items and 32 attitude items regarding arsenic was applied among the people of Nadia district of West Bengal. Therefore, the researcher analyzed the collecting data and eliminated the poor items on the basis of difficulty value and discrimination index. After elimination of distracting items, 25 items in knowledge section and 25 items in the attitude section were retained as a final form of tool regarding arsenic. Thereafter the final form of tools applied among 60 general people to calculate the reliability of the tools by test-retest reliability method. The researcher found significant reliability in knowledge and attitude tools. These standard tools can assess the knowledge and attitude level regarding arsenic among the people of arsenic contamination area with accuracy.