Development of the Attitude & Practice Towards Social Distancing Questionnaire and Evaluation of Its Validity and Reliability During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Iran

Abstract

bjective: Social distancing remains an effective solution to prevent Covid-19 and its new strains as approved by WHO and CDC. This study aims to develop and evaluate an attitude and practice questionnaire on the role of social distancing in the prevention of Covid-19. Methods: Based on a mixed-method exploratory approach, the study was conducted to develop a social distancing questionnaire using Waltz method in 4 steps. The preliminary items were developed based on semi-structured interviews with the target group and social distancing guidelines. After the face and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed, the questionnaire was distributed among the target population via mobile-based social networks. Next, the reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's alpha. In the next step, EFA and CFA were carried out in SPSS-16 and IBM SPSS AMOS -24 software programs. Finally, the reliability was evaluated using the test-retest method. Results: The 33 preliminary items (15 attitude and 18 practice items) of the questionnaire were answered by 623 participants. The resulting attitude questionnaire after CFA consisted of 7 items and three factors with CVR = 0.77, CVI = 0.92 and Cronbach's alpha =0.73; the 8-item practice questionnaire had three factors and CVR=1, CVI=0.98 and Cronbach's alpha=0. 76. Conclusion: The 7-item social distancing attitude questionnaire with three factors and the 8-item social distancing practice questionnaire with three factors are valid and reliable tools to evaluate the status of social distance in Iranian societies during Covid-19.

Attitude and Performance of the Adult Population Regarding Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the City of Gerash, Fars, Iran

“…Also, the Spearman correlation coefficient showed a significant direct relationship between the scores obtained in the two stages (r=0.42, p-value=0.025). Therefore, the reliability of the attitude and practice questionnaire was confirmed [28]. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including frequency and percentage, for the qualitative variables.…”