Reliability of a self-report questionnaire to assess parents’ postural knowledge

Study aim: To develop a reliable and valid questionnaire to assess parents’ postural knowledge.

Material and methods: This questionnaire was conducted on 30 Iranian parents. The questionnaire assessed knowledge of abnormalities in body posture and ergonomic knowledge of parents, which were in line with their postural knowledge. The kappa coefficient (test–retest reliability) of the questionnaire included assessing its stability over 1 week among 30 participants. The validity of the content of the questionnaire was checked and agreed upon by three experts from three different institutions.

Results: The kappa coefficient for 19 questions and their 46 sub-questions ranged from 0.30 to 1. Out of these items, 89% (n = 41) had a value of 0.6 or above and 11% (n = 5) were below 0.6. Questions were categorized as “no change expected” (0.86÷1), “change unlikely” (0.68÷1), and “change likely” (0.30÷0.68).

Conclusions: The Parent’s Postural Knowledge Questionnaire was found to be highly reliable and its contents relevant for the assessment of postural knowledge among Iranian parents. This tool is appropriate for studying larger populations in the variable of interest.