Measuring stress in podiatric students in Spain: psychometric validation and adaptation of the KEZKAK questionnaire

Ana Belen Ortega-Avila; Pablo Cervera-Garvi; Ana Maria Jimenez-Cebrian; Esther Chicharro-Luna; Irene Garcia-Paya; Gabriel Gijon-Nogueron

doi:10.7717/peerj.10439

Measuring stress in podiatric students in Spain: psychometric validation and adaptation of the KEZKAK questionnaire

PeerJ. 2020 Dec 9:8:e10439. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10439. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ana Belen Ortega-Avila¹, Pablo Cervera-Garvi¹, Ana Maria Jimenez-Cebrian¹, Esther Chicharro-Luna², Irene Garcia-Paya¹, Gabriel Gijon-Nogueron^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nursing and Podiatry, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain.
² Department of Behavioural Sciences and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University Miguel Hernandez, San Juan de Alicante, Spain.
³ Biomedical Research Institute (IBIMA), Malaga, Spain.

Abstract

Objective: The study aim was to develop a linguistic-cultural adaptation of the KEZKAK questionnaire to be completed during the practicum of podiatric medical students in Spain, to validate the questionnaire and to evaluate its psychometric properties.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out in two stages: 1. Cross-cultural adaptation; 2. Clinimetric validation based on assessments of interobserver reliability, test-retest reliability and internal consistency. The participants were podiatric medical students at the universities of Malaga and Miguel Hernandez, Alicante (Spain) and were recruited during the period February-October 2019. The following inclusion criteria were applied: aged at least 18 years, studying the third or fourth year of a university degree in Podiatry. All gave signed informed consent and completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Podiatry version of the KEZKAK questionnaire. No sampling was performed and thus the entire eligible population was included in the study.

Results: The analysis was based on 205 participants (33.5% male, 66.5% female), with a mean age of 23.05 (SD 5.37) years. Internal consistency was excellent, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.95. This version of the questionnaire had five factorial structures (61.18%). No floor/ceiling effect was observed in any item. The KEZKAK presented high test-retest reliability after 21 days, with an overall ICC of 0.95 (95% CI [0.93-0.98]).

Conclusion: For university students of podiatry in Spain, the KEZKAK Podiatry version questionnaire is a valid, reliable instrument for measuring stressors during the practicum.

Keywords: KEZKAK; Podiatry; Reliability; Validity.

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the University of Malaga (PIE 19-062). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.