Development, validity and reliability of the Sports Injury Prevention Awareness Scale

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to develop the Sports Injury Prevention Awareness Scale (SIPAS) and to determine its validity and reliability for use with the Turkish population. Materials and Methods: This methodological study was initiated after approval by the local ethics committee. After a review of the literature, a pool of 31 items was developed. The items were organized into a 5-point Likert-type scale (Scale v.1), and the content validity of this pilot-scale was assessed using the Lawshe method, for which expert opinion was used to determine content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI). Subsequently, the pilot-scale was applied to a sample of at least 10 times the number of items. Participants' descriptive information, and responses were recorded electronically (Google Forms). Data were analyzed and the validity and reliability of the scale were assessed using SPSS v.23 and AMOS v.24. Results: The content validity of the scale (Scale v.1) was assessed using opinions from 18 experts. Items that did not meet the minimum CVR threshold were eliminated (k=2). The remaining 29-item scale (Scale v.2) had a CVI of 0.696 and was applied to a total of 379 participants (147 males, 38.8%; 232 females, 61.2%) with a mean age of 29.2±11.3 years. From Scale v.2, a total of 11 items were removed due to reducing Cronbach's alpha coefficient (k=5), lack of variables (k=1), or cross-loading between factors (k=5). The remaining 18 items (Scale v.3) explained 59.7% of the variance. Analyses revealed four factors with eigenvalues λ>1.0. The reliability of Scale v.3 was demonstrated with a Spearman-Brown reliability coefficient of 0.778, a Guttman split-half reliability coefficient of 0.772, and a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.884. Scale v.3 satisfied the goodness-of-fit indices in confirmatory factor analysis. Conclusions: The 18-item four-factor (health status, environmental factors and equipment, exercise session, exercise program) Sports Injury Prevention Awareness Scale is valid and reliable for use with Turkish individuals aged 13-66 years.