Development of an instrument to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and Practices related to self-medication among older adults
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60103/phc.v28.e940Keywords:
Self-medication; Elderly people; Knowledge; Attitudes; Practices; survey design and validationAbstract
Introduction: Self-medication is common among older adults and may be influenced by region-specific habits. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to self-medication in older adults.
Methods: The methodology comprised six stages: (i) item generation and questionnaire structuring; (ii) qualitative validation through expert judgment; (iii) assessment of instrument comprehension by 40 participants; (iv) item modification; (v) a second comprehension analysis of the instrument conducted with 13 individuals; and (vi) a second round of item modification.
Results: Initially, the instrument consisted of 88 questions categorized into three dimensions: knowledge, attitudes, and practices. All modifications proposed by the experts after evaluating item comprehension focused on improving clarity and coherence, eliminating technical terminology, and increasing the relevance of the instrument to the research objective.
Conclusions: Ultimately, the final instrument included 62 items: 23 related to knowledge, 16 to attitudes, 10 to practices, and 13 addressing the reasons for self-medication. The development of this instrument is intended to be useful as a tool for the accurate assessment of self-medication among older adults.
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