e-ISSN 2231-8542
ISSN 1511-3701
Mehrnoosh Akhtari-Zavare, Fatemeh Aliyan-Fini, Abbas Ghanbari- Baghestan and Sherina Mohd-Sidik
Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, Volume 26, Issue 4, December 2018
Keywords: Breast cancer, breast cancer screening, Malaysia, validity
Published on: 24 Dec 2018
This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire on Malaysian students' knowledge and belief toward breast cancer and breast cancer screening. A cross sectional study was conducted among 792 female undergraduate students in selected public universities in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Convergent and discriminant validity tests were used for assessing construct validity of the questionnaire while the internal reliability of the instrument was checked by Cronbach's alpha. The average age of respondents was 22 years (21.77± 1.20). Majority of them were single (96.8%), Malay (91.9%), and Muslim (94.6%). This instrument had a good face and content validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for Health Belief Model Scales ranged between 0.73-0.83, indicating acceptable levels of internal consistency. The Kappa value for the knowledge part ranged between 0.52-0.90, also showing acceptable reliability. The developed instrument indicated good construct validity and reliability for Malaysian female students. This instrument can help health care planners and providers to measure levels of knowledge and beliefs of Malaysian women toward breast cancer before planning appropriate intervention.
ISSN 1511-3701
e-ISSN 2231-8542