Abstract
Background: As of August 11, 2020, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected 19,936,210 persons and led to 732,499 deaths worldwide. The impact has been immense, and with no vaccine currently available, the best way to protect our communities is health education. We developed a brief COVID-19 knowledge test for health educators that can be used to assess deficits in clients' understanding of the disease.Methods: COVID-19 Knowledge Test items were developed by the research team and administered to participants. An alternate-choice item format was selected for the knowledge test, and data analysis was based on an American sample of 273 respondents. A detailed analysis of the data was conducted with classical test theory and Rasch analysis.Findings: The final instrument was found to be a unidimensional measure of COVID-19 knowledge. Results provided evidence for absolute model fit and model fit for individual items. All items included on the scale were monotonically increasing and split-half reliability was considered acceptable. Total test information revealed that the test is suitable for individuals with low to average knowledge of COVID-19.Interpretation: Rasch analysis provides support for the COVID-19 Knowledge Test to be used as an assessment tool for health educators. The final version of the test consists of 34 high-quality test items that can be administered in <10 min. Normative data and suggested cutoff scores are also provided.
Highlights
Scientia potentia est, the Latin phrase for knowledge is power, is the public’s best defense against COVID-19, and knowledge of the disease is crucial to convincing people to take precautions, such as staying home, physically distancing, and following other preventative measures
It is useful for identifying items that may be too easy or too difficult and that may fail to differentiate between individuals who are highly knowledgeable of COVID-19 and those with little knowledge
Following Classical test theory (CTT) analysis, item response theory (IRT) analyses were completed for the remaining items
Summary
As of August 11, 2020, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected 19,936,210 persons and led to 732,499 deaths worldwide. The impact has been immense, and with no vaccine currently available, the best way to protect our communities is health education. We developed a brief COVID-19 knowledge test for health educators that can be used to assess deficits in clients’ understanding of the disease
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