Developing a questionnaire to assess Iranian nurses’ knowledge of and attitude to Middle East respiratory syndrome

Background: With the emergence of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), health care preparedness has received increasing attention, which requires valid tools to assess the knowledge and attitude of health workers, such as nurses, with regard to this disease. Aims: This study aimed to develop and evaluate a knowledge and attitudes questionnaire on MERS coronavirus for Iranian nurses. Methods: A questionnaire was developed based on international and national guidelines and a literature review. Ten nurses were recruited to assess face validity and 11 experts reviewed the instrument to determine the content validity ratio and index. Exploratory factor analysis was then done with a random sample of 155 nurses in Tabriz city, Islamic Republic of Iran. Results: Following determination of face and content validity, 78 items (61 knowledge and 17 attitude) were retained in the final version of the questionnaire. The knowledge scale had an average content validity index of 0.80 and the attitude scale a value of 0.91. In the exploratory factor analysis, five dimensions with eigenvalues > 1 and loading level ≥ 0.4 were extracted for the knowledge scale (46 items) and two for the attitude scale (16 items). The Kuder–Richardson 21 coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient for the knowledge scale were 0.94 and 0.91 respectively. In the attitude scale, the Cronbach alpha coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.82 and 0.89 respectively. Conclusions: The scale developed in this study is reliable and stable and a suitable instrument for evaluating the knowledge and attitude of nurses about MERS-CoV.