Abstract
Background: The burden of foodborne illness is considered to be high across the world. Based on the Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) model, physician’s awareness is essential for conducting individualized treatments, thus reducing the burden of foodborne illness. However, there have been no validated questionnaires specific to the awareness of physicians with foodborne diseases. This study aims to develop and validate a KAP questionnaire for physicians to assess their awareness about the diagnosis and management of foodborne illness. Methods The questionnaire was developed in three phases: a comprehensive literature review, face and content validity, followed by a reliability test by internal consistency. A cross-sectional study was designed in Abha, Saudi Arabia. Physicians (n=125) were opportunistically recruited from both public and private primary healthcare centers. The questionnaire’s content and validity were confirmed by experts in their corresponding fields. After signing the informed consent, the study participants received the questionnaire to evaluate their KAPs on foodborne diseases. Results: A total of 160 physicians from both public and private primary health care centers were approached to enrol 125 study participants into the survey (response rate 78.13%). Of the 31 items designed for assessing the KAP of physicians on foodborne illnesses, three items were excluded after Cronbach’s α analysis. In total, 29 items were included in the final set of the questionnaire. Results of different validity and reliability analyses suggest the questionnaire has a high face and content validity as well as good reliability in internal consistency and stability. Conclusions: This study introduces a newly developed questionnaire with good reliability and validity values that can assess physician’s awareness of foodborne disease. The awareness questionnaire, as a study instrument, had a favourable acceptance among physicians. It is a sound method for evaluating and measuring levels of foodborne disease-related awareness among physicians in Abha, Saudi Arabia.
Highlights
Foodborne illness is a major, but preventable, public health problem across the world.[1]
This study introduces a newly developed questionnaire with good reliability and validity values that can assess physician’s awareness of foodborne disease
A total of 125 from 160 physicians who participated in this study were selected from the government and private primary healthcare centres in the Abha city, with a response rate of 78.13%
Summary
Foodborne illness is a major, but preventable, public health problem across the world.[1]. Occasionally there have been reports on foodborne disease outbreak due to Salmonella, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus.[4]. 1. In the 2nd paragraph, line 2 the sentence ‘The government is very particular about the quality of food items in the restaurant; may need modification to reflect more generalized food control activities i.e., food establishments instead of the phrase ‘the restaurant’. 2. In the same paragraph bacterial names Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus should be in italics (there is no need to italicize the name Salmonella). There have been no validated questionnaires specific to the awareness of physicians with foodborne diseases. This study aims to develop and validate a KAP questionnaire for physicians to assess their awareness about the diagnosis and management of foodborne illness
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