Development and Validation of a Questionnaire to Measure Knowledge of and Attitude toward COVID-19 among Nursing Students in Greece

Abstract

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing students have had a key role in supporting the healthcare sector. They can join healthcare professionals in clinical practice or provide information to increase citizens’ levels of knowledge and their compliance with the restriction measures. The study aimed to develop and validate a tool to measure knowledge of and attitudes toward COVID-19 among nursing students in Greece. Methods: A questionnaire was developed through theoretical research and expert consultation. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 348 undergraduate nursing students of the Department of Nursing, Hellenic Mediterranean University, recruited by convenient sampling. Validity and reliability were analyzed. Results: The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure was 0.84, indicating that the sample size was adequate for factor analysis. In addition, the p-value for Bartlett’s test of sphericity was <0.001, denoting that the correlation matrix was suitable for factor analysis. The construct validity of the questionnaire was determined through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which revealed that 16 items lead to four factors: knowledge, attitude toward restriction measures, compliance with them, and volunteering. One of the key findings of this study was that participants preferred to receive information from valid sources rather than social media during the crucial period of the “infodemic”. Conclusions: The questionnaire was shown to have satisfying psychometric properties and, therefore, can be used as a tool in future research in the area of nursing students’ knowledge, attitudes, compliance, and volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Factors influencing nursing students' intention to accept COVID-19 vaccination: A pooled analysis of seven European countries

“…In general, mental health status of nursing students has deteriorated during the pandemic. Many studies have reported high level of depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 period ( Mechili et al, 2020 ; Patelarou et al, 2020 ). The measures undertaken by national governments (such as quarantine), the regular discussion in traditional and modern media have probably contributed in fear increase.…”

“…The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic is now hitting European countries with the total number of confirmed cases exceeding 87 million and 1.9 million deaths ( Looi, 2020 ). The impact of the pandemic is far more than a health crisis as it is affecting society and economy and although it varies from country to country it will definitely increase poverty, unemployment, social distancing, self- isolation, inequalities globally with serious psychosocial impact ( Nicola et al, 2020 ; Patelarou et al, 2020 ). As a result, responding swiftly to the pandemic and beat COVID-19 has now become the most important thing for humanity.…”

Factors influencing nursing students’ intention to accept COVID-19 vaccination – A pooled analysis of seven countries

“…The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic is now hitting European countries with the total number of confirmed cases exceeding 87 million and 1.9 million deaths until now (January 2021) [2]. The impact of the pandemic is far more than a health crisis as it is affecting society and economy and although it varies from country to country it will definitely increase poverty, unemployment, social distancing, self-isolation, inequalities globally with serious psychosocial impact [3,4,5]. As a result, responding swiftly to the pandemic and beat COVID-19 has now become the most important thing for humanity.…”

Development and validation of a questionnaire to measure attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination and pandemic

“…Until now, several questionnaires and scales have created to examine psychological impact of COVID-19 and mainly examine stress, anxiety or fear (Ahorsu et al, 2020; Arpaci et al, 2020; Feng et al, 2020; Lee, 2020; Lins and Aquino, 2020; Repišti et al, 2020; Taylor et al, 2020; Voitsidis et al, 2021). Also, several other questionnaires have developed to measure knowledge, attitudes, and practices about the COVID-19 (Bekele et al, 2020; Dardas et al, 2020; Patelarou et al, 2020; Saadatjoo et al, 2021; Srichan et al, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, no fully validated questionnaire to measure attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination and pandemic exists.…”

“…The questionnaire includes 16 items which were simple and understandable to the participants. For this reason, filling out the questionnaire is a straightforward process and requires only a short time (about 5 minutes).Several questionnaires have been developed to measure knowledge, attitudes, and practices about theCOVID-19 (Bekele et al, 2020;Dardas et al, 2020;Patelarou et al, 2020;Saadatjoo et al, 2021;Srichan et al, 2020). Each questionnaire has pros and cons.These questionnaires have been developed over the last 20 months and each one has attempted to capture attitudes during the period of the pandemic in which it developed.…”