Development of a community health workers perceptual and behavioral competency scale for preventing non-communicable diseases (COCS-N) in Japan

BACKGROUND: Community health workers in Japan are commissioned to work on a voluntary basis on behalf of their communities, to promote healthy behaviors. They are a valuable resource because they can often provide health information and services for local residents with whom professionals find it difficult to engage. However, no instruments exist for evaluating perceptual and behavioral competencies for prevention of non-communicable diseases among voluntary unpaid community health workers in developed countries. This study aimed to develop a community health workers perceptual and behavioral competency scale for preventing non-communicable diseases (COCS-N), and to assess its reliability and validity. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study using a self-reported questionnaire. A total of 6480 community health workers across 94 local governments in Japan were eligible to participate. We evaluated the construct validity of the COCS-N using confirmatory factor analysis, and assessed internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha. We used the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire and the Community Commitment Scale to assess the criterion-related validity of the COCS-N. RESULTS: In total, we received 3140 valid responses. The confirmatory factor analysis identified eight items from two domains, with perceptions covered by “Sharing the pleasure of living a healthy life” and behavioral aspects by “Creating healthy resources” (goodness-of-fit index = 0.991, adjusted goodness-of-fit index = 0.983, comparative fit index = 0.993, root mean square error of approximation = 0.036). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.88. COCS-N scores were correlated with European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire scores and Community Commitment Scale scores (r = 0.577, P < 0.001 and r = 0.447, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The COCS-N is a brief, easy-to-administer instrument that is reliable and valid for community health workers. This study will therefore enable the assessment and identification of community health workers whose perceptual and behavioral competency could be improved through training and activities. Longitudinal research is needed to verify the predictive value of the COCS-N, and to apply it to a broader range of participants in a wider range of settings. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-13779-5.