Design And Validation Of A Questionnaire To Evaluate The Knowledge About Lower Genital Tract Infections In Community Pharmacy

Objectives: To design and validate a questionnaire of knowledge about infections of the lower genital tract, of non-sexual transmission, intended for patients who visit community pharmacies and have suffered vaginal infections at least once.Material and methods: The validation and design of the knowledge questionnaire was based on bibliographic review, evaluation by the panel of experts (Delphi method) and the corresponding statistical analysis. The reliability of the scale was determined using the internal consistency index (Cronbach's alpha). Besides, a factorial analysis of the main components with Varimax rotation was carried out and the questionnaire sensitivity to change was verified through the Wilcoxon and McNemar test. The questionnaire was self-administered among the pharmacies before the educational intervention through specially prepared brochures and was re-applied after 6 months.Results: The evaluation by 30 experts was superior to 4 out of 5 on the Likert scale. The study involved 105 women between 18 and 65 years old from 11 community pharmacies in Madrid. The internal consistency before and after the item screening was 0,713 and 0,738 respectively. The factorial analysis confirmed the multidimensionality of the questionnaire. The Wilcoxon test demonstrated the sensitivity of the questionnaire to the educational intervention. Only 28.6% of the patients correctly answered more than 75% of the items.Conclusions: The knowledge about vaginal infections is considered unsatisfactory; therefore, it is necessary to implement health education in the community pharmacies. Thanks to the reliability of the scale and the optimal validity of the content, the designed questionnaire can be considered a good basis for future research and a recommended tool in professional practice.