Background: There is a lack of instruments which can be used to quantitatively assess school children's knowledge about medicine in different countries.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to validate the Danish translation of a school children's medicine knowledge questionnaire developed in Finland.
Methods: A total of 685 children from 37 Danish elementary schools, aged 10-14 years, participated in a validation study. Test-retest and inter-rater reliability, as well as known-group-validity of the translated instrument were investigated. Significance level was set at P ≤ 0.05.
Results: For test-retest reliability, Spearman r correlation coefficients for correct knowledge score between the two rounds was 0.433, P < 0.001. For inter-rater reliability, kappa for agreement in correct knowledge score ratings between the two raters was 0.202. For known-group validity, a multivariate linear regression model was run for correct knowledge scores, and it significantly explained 9.2% of variance (R square 0.092, P < 0.001). Gender, school grade and use of medicine for asthma were significant predictors in the model.
Conclusions: The translated questionnaire showed a fair test-retest and inter-rater reliability, as well as acceptable known-group validity. In order to be reliably used in further studies to evaluate school children's knowledge about medicine in Denmark, the methodic of knowledge scoring in the instrument is warranted.
Keywords: Knowledge; Medicine; Questionnaire; School children; Validation.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.