Validation of a Questionnaire Developed to Evaluate a Pediatric eHealth Website for Parents.

Bruno José Nievas Soriano,Antonio Bonillo Perales,Tesifón Parrón Carreño,Sonia García Duarte,Ana María Fernández Alonso

doi:10.3390/ijerph17082671

Abstract

There is a need for health professionals to provide parents with not only evidence-based child health websites but also instruments to evaluate them. The main aim of this research was to develop a questionnaire for measuring users’ evaluation of the usability, utility, confidence, the well-child section, and the accessibility of a Spanish pediatric eHealth website for parents. We further sought to evaluate the content validity and psychometric reliability of the instrument. A content validation study by expert review was performed, and the questionnaire was pilot tested. Psychometric analyses were used to establish scales through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Reliability studies were performed using Cronbach’s alpha and two split-half methods. The content validation of the questionnaire by experts was considered as excellent. The pilot web survey was completed by 516 participants. The exploratory factor analysis excluded 27 of the 41 qualitative initial items. The confirmatory factor analysis of the resultant 14-item questionnaire confirmed the five initial domains detected in the exploratory confirmatory analysis. The goodness of fit for the competing models was established through fit indices and confirmed the previously established domains. Adequate internal consistency was found for each of the subscales as well as the overall scale.

Highlights

The quality of parenting that children receive during their first years has a crucial influence on child development and health [1,2]
Reviewers commented on the likely mechanisms of shortening questions, concerns about privacy aspects, and proposed minor changes in eight of the 41 qualitative items
After performing a factorial analysis, our findings offer evidence of the validity and reliability of a final 14-item questionnaire to evaluate different aspects of a pediatric website for parents in Spanish

Summary

Introduction

The quality of parenting that children receive during their first years has a crucial influence on child development and health [1,2]. Parents need information about their children’s symptoms, and the Internet is a major resource [3]. It has changed the way that users search for information and take decisions about health [4]. Parents of sick children report using the Internet to find health information [7], and the Internet may serve as a convenient repository of health information [8]. There is an urgent need for health professionals to provide parents with evidence-based child health websites [9]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion