Spanish translation and psychometric evaluation of the Healthcare Professional Knowledge of Radiation Protection scale

Abstract

The objective of this work was to make an intercultural adaptation and provide a Spanish translation and psychometric evaluation of the original English version of the Healthcare Professional Knowledge of Radiation Protection (HPKRP) scale. The Spanish translation was carried out following international guidelines for the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures. A cross-sectional design study was carried out. One hundred and thirty-eight nurses from four different hospitals in Barcelona (Spain) completed the Spanish version of the scale. The total score of the scale was calculated. The Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) was used to evaluate a possible correlation between score and years of experience. A t-test for independent samples was used to evaluate significant differences between different groups. Cronbach’s alpha, the corrected item–total correlation coefficient and the test–retest coefficient were used to determine internal consistency. The exploratory factor and parallel analysis were also calculated. All statistical tests were carried out with a level of significance α = 0.05. The mean scale score was poor among Spanish nurses. The PCC between total score and years of experience showed a non-significant correlation (p > 0.05). No differences were found between nurses who worked in radiation-exposed units and those who worked in units without radiation exposure (p > 0.05). A Cronbach α of 0.98 was obtained for the items of the scale. The corrected item–total correlation range was 0.5–0.8. The test–retest correlation coefficient was 0.9. The exploratory analysis factor showed a single factorial structure which explained 60.86% of the variance. The new scale translated into Spanish (Sp-HPKRP) could be used to evaluate the degree of knowledge about radiological protection.