The Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Knowledge Level (CARRF-KL) Scale: a validity and reliability study

OBJECTIVES
We developed a questionnaire to measure the knowledge level of adults about risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and assessed its validity and reliability.

STUDY DESIGN
We developed the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Knowledge Level (CARRF-KL) Scale in the light of the literature data. It consisted of 28 items, questioning the features of CVD in the first four items, risk factors in 15 items, and the results of adopting a risk-free attitude in nine items. All the items were based on true/false statements, requiring a response in the form of “Yes”, “No” or “Don’t know”. To determine its validity and reliability, the scale was administered to 200 participants older than 20 years, of whom 144 individuals were involved in test-retest evaluations. Internal consistency was estimated using the Cronbach’s alpha. To determine the validity of the scale, individuals with CVD and/or familial history were compared with those without CVD and/or familial history.

RESULTS
The rates of true responses varied between 44.5% and 96.5%. The mean score was 19.3±3.2 (range 5 to 27), and the median item-total correlation was 0.26 (range 0.13 to 0.51). Internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) was 0.768. There was a strong positive correlation between the test and retest total scores (r=0.850; p=0.000). Individuals with CVD and/or familial history had a significantly higher mean score than those without CVD and/or familial history (20.2±3.1 vs 19.3±3.2; p=0.032).

CONCLUSION
In Turkey, CARRF-KL is the first scale developed to measure the knowledge level of individuals about risk factors for CVD, with good indices of validity and reliability.