Abstract
Background:The burden of foodborne illnessisconsidered to behigh across the world.Basedonthe Knowledge-Attitude-Practice(KAP) model, physician's awareness is essentialforconductingindividualized treatments, thus reducingtheburdenof foodborne illness. However, there have been no validated questionnaires specific to the awareness of physicians with foodborne diseases.This study aims to develop and validateaKAPquestionnaire for physiciansto assess their awarenessaboutthediagnosis and managementof foodborneillness. MethodsThe 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) wereopportunisticallyrecruited from both public and private primary healthcarecenters.The questionnaire'scontent and validity were confirmed by experts in their corresponding fields. After signing the informed consent, the study participants received the questionnaire to evaluate theirKAPson foodborne diseases. Results:A totalof160 physicians from both public and private primary health carecenterswere approached to enrol125study participantsintothe survey(response rate78.13%). Of the 31itemsdesigned for assessing theKAPof physicians on foodborne illnesses, threeitems were excluded afterCronbach'sα analysis. In total, 29 items wereincluded inthe final set of the questionnaire.Results of different validity and reliability analyses suggestthe questionnaire hasahigh faceandcontent validity as well as good reliability in internal consistencyand stability. Conclusions:This study introduces a newly developed questionnaire with good reliability and validity values that can assess physician's awarenessof foodborne disease.The awareness questionnaire,as a study instrument,hadafavourable acceptanceamong 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]
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%
From the 31 items that were included in the analysis for reliability, three questions were not in the acceptable range of Cronbach's alpha
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). 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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