Muhammad Aladin, Wan Mohammad Wan Mohd Zahiruddin, Idris Siti Rabiatull Aisha, Ismail Ahmad Filza
Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, MYS.
Mechanical and Automotive Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah, Pekan, MYS.
Cureus. 2024 Feb 3;16(2):e53521. doi: 10.7759/cureus.53521. eCollection 2024 Feb.
Safety has become paramount to ensure that scuba diving continues to expand into new markets, with minimal risks, and that scuba diving translates into a safe and relaxed adventure in response to growing market demands. Research focusing on assessing the knowledge, awareness, and practices (KAP) regarding safety and emergency response among scuba divers has been limited, and there is a need for validated assessment tools in this area.
This study involved 555 scuba divers in Malaysia, and the questionnaire underwent a thorough development and validation process, including content and face validity assessments, as well as exploratory factor analysis. The validation of the knowledge domain was conducted using Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis, while awareness and practice were validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA).
The content validity of the instrument was confirmed, with all items scoring over 80% for Item Content Validity Index (I-CVI), Scale Content Validity Index (S-CVI), and Scale Content Validity Index/Average (S-CVI/AVE). The initial draft comprises three domains: knowledge, awareness, and practice. Knowledge items were analyzed using IRT and demonstrated acceptable difficulty and discrimination levels. For the awareness and practice domains, EFA showed a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure (KMO) of 0.83 and 0.79, respectively, with a significant Bartlett's test of Sphericity (P < 0.001). EFA yielded three factors for both awareness and practice domains with a total of 12 items for awareness and 13 items for practice, with satisfactory factor loadings (≥0.3). The final model of CFA showed good fits for both awareness and practice domains in terms of absolute, parsimonious, and comparative measures. The composite reliability of awareness was acceptable with Raykov's rho of 0.71, whereas the practice domain fell slightly below the acceptable threshold at 0.55. This was attributed to low factor loading and a limited number of items within each factor. The final questionnaire now consists of 20 items for knowledge, 10 items for awareness, and 12 items for the practice domain.
The results of this validation and reliability study indicate that the newly developed questionnaire possesses favorable psychometric properties for assessing KAP related to safety and emergency response in the scuba diving context. This research is essential for harmonizing the perspectives of crucial stakeholders within the recreational scuba diving industry.
安全已变得至关重要，以确保水肺潜水能够持续拓展新市场，同时将风险降至最低，并根据不断增长的市场需求，使水肺潜水转变为安全且轻松的冒险活动。针对评估水肺潜水员在安全和应急响应方面的知识、意识及实践（KAP）的研究一直有限，且该领域需要经过验证的评估工具。
本研究涉及马来西亚的555名水肺潜水员，问卷经历了全面的开发和验证过程，包括内容和表面效度评估以及探索性因素分析。知识领域的验证采用项目反应理论（IRT）分析，而意识和实践则通过探索性和验证性因素分析（EFA和CFA）进行验证。
该工具的内容效度得到确认，所有项目在项目内容效度指数（I-CVI）、量表内容效度指数（S-CVI）和量表内容效度指数/平均值（S-CVI/AVE）方面的得分均超过80%。初稿包括三个领域：知识、意识和实践。知识项目使用IRT进行分析，显示出可接受的难度和区分度水平。对于意识和实践领域，EFA显示Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin测度（KMO）分别为0.83和0.79，具有显著的Bartlett球形检验（P < 0.001）。EFA在意识和实践领域均产生了三个因素，意识领域共有12个项目，实践领域有13个项目，因素载荷令人满意（≥0.3）。CFA的最终模型在绝对、简约和比较测量方面对意识和实践领域均显示出良好的拟合度。意识的组合信度可接受，Raykov's rho为0.71，而实践领域略低于可接受阈值，为0.55。这归因于因素载荷较低以及每个因素内的项目数量有限。最终问卷现在包括知识领域的20个项目、意识领域的10个项目和实践领域的12个项目。
这项效度和信度研究的结果表明，新开发的问卷在评估水肺潜水背景下与安全和应急响应相关的KAP方面具有良好的心理测量特性。这项研究对于协调休闲水肺潜水行业内关键利益相关者的观点至关重要。
