First Data in the Process of Validating a Tool to Evaluate Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Healthcare Providers in Oral Care of Institutionalized Elderly Residents: Content Validity, Reliability and Pilot Study

Background: Oral health of elderly people is a global concern. Poor oral health in institutionalized elderly people has been attributed to poor knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of healthcare providers. However, no validated KAP tool is available yet. Objective: To develop and validate a tool to measure knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare providers in oral care of institutionalized elderly people. Methods: The development and validation of the tool was based on literature reviews, comments from professional experts, and statistical analytic methods. Content validity in the instrument psychometric property and its relevance with reliability are essential. Content validity ratio and content validity index were performed. Then, a pilot study was conducted in 20 institutionalized healthcare providers for testing applicability, feasibility, and reliability. Results: A total of 43 items were developed in three domains, knowledge (19 items), attitude (13 items), and practice (11 items). Content validity analysis revealed the KAP tool with high values of the I-CVI (score 1.00) and S-CVI (S-CVI/UA result 1.00). The test-retest reliability with Cronbach’s alphas of knowledge, attitude, practice, and overall KAP were 0.67, 0.93, 0.92, and 0.94, respectively. Conclusions: The developed and validated tool is appropriate to measure KAP of healthcare providers in oral care of institutionalized elderly people. It can be used to measure KAP of institutionalized healthcare providers in order to develop appropriate strategies to improve KAP of healthcare providers.